Climber dies as search for Swede called off

A MAN in his 40s fell several hundred feet to his death on the MacGillycuddy Reeks, Co Kerry, yesterday.

At the time, an extensive search for a 22-year-old Swedish man, Olas Jansen, missing since last Tuesday, was underway in the area and this search was formally stood down last evening after no trace of him was found.

The man who died, meanwhile, appeared to be climbing alone, according to the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team, and was seen falling from treacherous Beenkeragh Ridge, near Carrantuohill, by three other people who raised the alarm. An emergency call was received at Killarney garda station at 1.15pm and the rescue team immediately went to the scene.

About 25 team members were bringing the man’s body down by stretcher in a hazardous operation, expected to be completed before 10 o’clock last night.

Weather conditions were described as atrocious, with very high winds and rain.

The dead man is Irish, but is not from the Kerry area. His body was found in Brother O’Shea’s gulley, north west of Carrantuohill, and a post-mortem examination is to be carried out at Kerry General Hospital, Tralee.

It was the volunteer rescue team’s third call-out since Tuesday last and many team members spent most of their Christmas holidays on searches.

Team spokesman Gerry Christie said they had been stretched to the limit, not for the first time.

He said the four-day search for Mr Jansen had been “unprecedented in its extent” and there was a strong possibility he had suffered a fatal mishap.

The Jansen search involved more than 180 climbers and walkers from clubs north of the border, a Coastguard helicopter, Civil Defence, gardaí and seven sniffer dogs.

Amounting to over 4,000 man hours, it was concentrated on a huge swathe of rough terrain between Mangerton and Carrantuohill.

Around 100 people were searching yesterday.

“We’ve done an exhaustive search and can definitely say Mr Jansen is not in a lot of areas that are well known to us. We’ve turned up absolutely nothing,” said Tim Murphy, of the rescue team.

Mr Jansen got married on December 23 and his wife Marion is believed to have family connections in the Kilgarvan district and to be in the area.

Christmas is traditionally a busy time on the Kerry mountains and an estimated 200 people were out hill walking at the time of yesterday’s fatality.

Prior to Christmas, the rescue team issued a strong warning to climbers and hill walkers to take extra care, especially in slippery and icy underfoot conditions which can lead to falls, often with fatal consequences.

The team expressed cause for concern about the large numbers of people that climb Carrantuohill during the festive season, especially on St Stephen’s Day.

Gerry Christie said lack of navigational skill was the biggest contributor to accidents on the hills. He also said climbers should not assume they would have mobile phone coverage.

The team receives an average of two call-outs per month.

Last Tuesday, the team stretchered a young Dublin woman to safety after she sustained back injuries in a fall on the Devil’s Ladder, Carrantuohill. His condition in hospital was later said to be comfortable.