South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association Blog

At around 3.30pm on Sunday, November 1st, 2009, the mountain rescue team was alerted to an incident in the Comeragh Mountains. A lady hillwalker had fallen and injured her lower leg during an organised walk around Lough Coumshingaun. Two members of the mountain rescue team happened to be near where the accident occurred and went to her aid, and were able to direct more mountain rescue volunteers to the exact location. It was decided to call on the Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford to evacuate the woman.

The Marine Rescue Coordinating Center in Dublin tasked the Sikorsky S61 helicopter, which was flying over the accident site within ten minutes. The hillwalker was airlifted and taken to Waterford Regional Hospital. Mountain rescue personnel escorted the remainder of the walking group off the mountains to their cars.

This is the second incident in the south east in six days to which the team have responded. Earlier in the week, the team rescued twelve people in the Galtee mountains in Tipperary after they had gotten lost in atrocious weather conditions.

In a major search and rescue operation on the Galtee mountains in Tipperary, twelve people were located and taken to safety by mountain rescue volunteers who came to their aid from all over the south east of Ireland. On October 27th 2009, the mountain rescue team was alerted by Gardai in Cahir when the group rang the emergency 999/112 number and requested assistance. The twelve, comprising of adults and teenagers, had climbed Galtymore earlier in the day, but had gotten lost in dense fog and mist on their descent.

At 1600hrs, the mountain rescue team issued a full team call out to all its members and set up an incident command post at the top of the Black Road, that leads into the mountains from the Cahir Mitchelstown road. By 16.30, the first search teams were on their way up the mountains to search for the group in what were described as terrible weather conditions. An incident commander was in mobile phone contact with the group, who were able to describe their position on the mountains. At 18hrs, up to thirty mountain rescue members were searching from Galtymore to Greenane, an area of 10 square km, concentrating on the southern slopes of the mountains. Because of very poor weather conditions, rain, fog, and very strong wind, the group were only located at 21.30 that night. They were rewarmed in team shelters and assessed by team medics, given hot drinks and extra clothing. When more mountain rescue members reached the area, the party was escorted to team off-road vehicles and driven back to their cars. All the group were very cold, but none needed hospital treatment. All the mountain rescue search parties were off the mountains by 23.30hrs.

SEMRA would like to thank all who assisted in this search and rescue, the Gardai in Cahir, and the Coast Guard Helicopter crew in Waterford, who had been but on standby, its own volunteer members, who worked in atrocious weather condition to achieve this successful outcome.