A woman was rescued from a snow-bound Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s highest mountain, in treacherous conditions in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The injured woman had fallen and required help and was among a party of six stuck in a gully in the Hags Glen area.
She was safely brought down at 1.30am after an eight-hour operation by members of Kerry Mountain Rescue. Conditions on the mountains are “extremely challenging”, the rescuers said.
“This was a long and difficult operation,” spokesman Gerry Christie said. The party had to be brought up to a higher ridge before being led down It was snowing at the time, though not freezing.
Navigational error rather than the conditions led to the party’s predicament. Some 27 members were involved in the rescue of the woman and the other five members of the party.
It is understood the party of six were on their way down the mountain – two of the climbers had reached the summit but others had turned back - when they became stranded.
The were coming down a steep gully adjacent to The Bone when they made a navigational error and took a wrong turning and ended up stuck in the gully.
The full rescue team was called out at 4.15pm on Wednesday. The party had to be led 200 meters back up the mountain before being guided safely down to Cronin’s Yard.
”It was a long and challenging operation, but with a happy ending,” Mr Christie said.
He rejected suggestions that the party should not have attempted the climb in the first place, given the weather. He said the mountain was not particularly treacherous at the time and some climbers liked to go up in snow conditions.
“I’d go up in snow – though [only] in hard snow,” he said. The snow yesterday was set and sloppy.
As the rescue took place, in the dark, two hill runners with head torches passed the team running to the summit and back down again.
The party rescued were well equipped and had the necessary clothing layers to stave off hypothermia.
“Hypothermia was our main worry,” Mr Christie said of their fears for the lost party.
The rescue was completed at 1.30am at Lislebane and no one needed to be brought to hospital.