12 hill walkers lucky to be alive

A GROUP of 12 hill walkers are lucky to be alive following a dramatic rescue on the Galtee mountains in Tipperary.

The mixed group from Co Cork — which included children — had a single adult walk leader during the trek.

They got into difficulties on Tuesday afternoon in atrocious weather conditions and had to wait for five hours for rescuers to arrive and a further three hours before being brought to safety.

The rescue was carried out by 30 members of South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association (SEMRA) who were alerted by gardaí after the group made an emergency phone call.

“I am a seasoned hill walker for 30 years and conditions on the mountain were as bad as I have ever seen,” said Jimmy Barry, public relations officer of the rescue association.

“The forecast had been bad all day. The group was heading up Galtymore in the daytime and, as often happens in Ireland, they bit off more than they could chew. They got lost on the way down, missing track as they made their descent. This is a fairly common occurrence if you have bad conditions and if you are not a good navigator.

“They good thing was they realised quickly they could not get themselves out of trouble and made the emergency call.”

At 6pm, 30 mountain rescue members were searching from Galtymore to Greenane an area of 10sq km, concentrating on the southern slopes of the mountains. Due to very poor weather conditions rain, fog, and very strong wind the group was only located at 9.30pm.

“There was a strong wind from the south, visibility was down to a couple of metres and, with the fog, our searchlights were not much good,” explained Mr Barry. “It was also a huge search area and the number of walkers involved made it even more difficult. Rivers in the area were also in spate so we had to do a loop around to get to them.”

The hill walkers were given hot drinks and extra clothing and escorted to the mountain rescue Land Rover.

All the group were very cold but none needed hospital treatment and all the mountain rescue search parties were off the mountain just before midnight.

The search was coordinated by the gardaí and the coast guard helicopter was available.

“In hindsight, I suppose you could say they were lucky. You can’t take the Irish mountains for granted,” said Mr Barry.

“People die in Irish hills every year, 10 last year and 13 the year before. Thank God everything went well.”

* For information on the rescue team visit www.semra.ie.