Video: dramatic rescue of injured Wicklow climbers captured

Climbers were part of group which got into trouble on Luggala mountain

The combined resources of the Irish Coast Guard, The Glen of Imaal Red Cross and Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue team, were credited with an ambitious rescue of three climbers in Luggala in the Wicklow mountains on Saturday.

Dramatic footage of injured climbers being rescued from a Co Wicklow mountain has been released.

The climbers were part of a group which got into trouble on the Luggala peak last Saturday.

The video shows a member of the rescue team abseiling from a Coast Guard helicopter to retrieve a man who had been seriously injured following a 30-metre fall.

The injured climber was later transferred to hospital where he remains in a stbale condition.

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At around 5.30pm on Saturday evening, the Glen of Imaal Red Cross Mountain Rescue and Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue teams responded to a 999 call from An Garda Síochána.

The Coast Guard helicopter transferred the rescue teams to the area.

One injured climber was walked off the mountain while two others, who were more seriously hurt, were airlifted to hospital.

"At that point, we were hoping that we could bring more people in the helicopter but couldn't because of the weather and conditions," said Rita Darcy, secretary of the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue team.

Ms Darcy added that the rescuers had to set-up a rope system to access one climber, who was the most seriously injured after falling about 30 metres.

“They had to transfer him onto their own abseil,” she said, while adding that the person was then given morphine by a paramedic.

In deteriorating weather conditions and fading light, the injured climber was carried, with the assistance of two other climbers, through a boulder field by the rescue team to a waiting ambulance.