"Daring Rescue on
Carrauntoohil"
The Kerryman, 29/7/67.
Members of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team and Gardaí on
Sunday evening effected one of the most daring rescues ever performed
on Carrauntoohil when they brought down safely a Corkman who had
been injured in a fall on a sheer rock face.The injured man was
Bill Collins, of St. Lukes, who was climbing on the eastern face
of Carrauntoohil with his friend Con Horgan when the accident
occurred. They were about 400 feet from the summit when Bill Collins
slipped and fell 20 feet before he became wedged in the rocks.
He sustained a compound fracture of the right leg and right arm
and some head injuries. Had he not been wedged in the rocks he
would have fallen a further 200 feet.
Having made his friend as comfortable as possible, Con Horgan
heroically faced the dangerous climb back down on his own and
raised the alarm at about 7.30pm at Beaufort Garda Station. He
then went back up the mountain to be with his friend while Gardaí
were alerting the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team. Five members of
the team including two newly qualified doctors arrived at the
scene of the accident at about 10.30 in pitch darkness and Gardaí
Guthrie and O'Sullivan arrived at about 11pm. 
It was bitterly cold and there was a storm blowing with the mountain
being lashed by rain. It became so cold that the rescuers were
unable to keep warm and decided to start back down the mountain
at 1am rather than stay and succumb to the cold on the mountain
top. It took 8 hours of perilous rock climbing to lower the stretcher
bearing Bill Collins to the foot of the mountain and a further
3 hours to get him out to where the ambulance had been waiting
all through the night. He was removed to hospital at approximately
1pm. The rescuers had spent nearly 19 hours on the mountain without
food or sleep at this time.
Paddy O'Callaghan, one of the leaders in the rescue, said one
of their biggest difficulties was in trying to come down a gully
which, though dry on the ascent, was a roaring river for the descent
due to the heavy rains. "We had to leave three nylon ropes
up there as it was too dangerous to try and retrieve them"
he said. He said they would have to go back for them within the
next week or so as equipment was too expensive to leave anything
on the mountains. He said the stretcher on which Bill Collins
was brought down the mountain cost £80, and a second one
had been ordered by the team. He added that the lack of funds
was a very big handicap to their efforts to have a really first
class rescue service in operation.
