Busy start to Christmas (20/12/09)

Wicklow’s Mountain rescue teams had a busy start to Christmas week. Both the Glen of Imaal Red Cross Mountain and the Dublin/Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team were called out on 4 occasions yesterday Sunday 20th

The first incident occurred at 8.45am for two male climbers. The men who were intending to climb in the frozen gullies of the Fraughan Rock Glen in the Glenmalure Valley, required help when one of them fell and sustained a lower leg injury. As the area has poor phone coverage his friend had to leave him for some time while he went to get mobile phone coverage to make the call for help. On receiving the 999 call the Gardaí called out Mountain Rescue. The Glen of Imaal mountain rescue team and Dublin/Wicklow mountain rescue team responded quickly to the call for help. The man who had started to self evacuate with the assistance of his friend, was intercepted by the rescue parties. He was given first aid treatment and despite the treacherous conditions underfoot, he was stretchered out safely to an awaiting HSE 4 x 4 ambulance. He was then transferred to hospital for medical treatment.

The second incident occurred at approximately 3:30pm, a motorist had gotten into difficulty on the military road between Kilakee and Glencree due to icy conditions. Members of the mountain rescue teams made their way to the location and assisted the driver briefly.

A third incident occurred at approximately 7:30pm for another driver who had gotten into difficulty due to the decreasing temperatures and increased treacherous icy conditions on the Military road at Sally Gap, as members of the mountain rescue teams arrived the driver managed to get himself out of difficulty. Simultaneously a fourth incident occurred on the Military road however this was close to Lough Tay. Again as members of the rescue teams arrived the driver managed to get himself out of difficulty.

Mountain rescue would like to stress to all drivers to listen to the weather warnings and news bulletins with respect to driving conditions in the Dublin/Wicklow mountains and to exercise extreme caution over the Christmas and New Year period. Whilst mountain rescue will assist people in difficulty in the mountains, we are unable to assist in vehicle recovery.

Mountain rescue teams would like to thank all those who assisted in these callouts