"STRANDED! Night
of Terror on Kerry Mountain"
Kerry's Eye, 1/8/91.
A Dublin housewife, Janice Curran (names changed)spent a frightening
18 hours under the peak of Carrauntoohil on Saturday night and
Sunday morning. She became trapped on a ledge when mist came down.
She was returning from the summit when a wrong turn put her into
new territory. Mrs. Curran had set off on the climb with her Galway
born husband Frank. They were experienced in mountain climbing
and had first met on a mountain climb in Wicklow.
Describing her worst moment she said "I decided that I would
have to climb back up to the top and I was making great progress
and all of a sudden I came to a great big rock. There were two
footholds at the side of the rock and I was able to get one foot
into the lower hold and I tried to bring my left foot up into
the second one and I couldn't make it. So I was stuck like that
off the ground with one foot up in the foothold and the other
foot half way up the rock. Below me was a lake - I will never
till my dying day forget that black lake - all sheer rock all
the way down. I thought 'this is it, I'm finished'. I sais 'Jesus,
if ever I needed you, I need you now', and I really felt that
this was the end.
"It wasn't bright enough to see as this was about 10 o'clock.
I put all my weight across onto my left foot, very gingerly, knowing
that this could be the last move I was ever going to make. I got
myself across. When I got one foot across I had to bring down
my other foot and very, very slowly I brought the second foot
across and I got across into grass again. That was really the
most horrific moment for me. Then I lay up against the grass and
I could actually hear my heart jumping."
Explaining how she lost her way, Janice said "Having got
to the top I got lost coming down. I came down the Killarney side.
I came down thinking that I was going to the top of the Ladder,
but I went down to my right instead of my left. I followed the
natural slope." She could see the light from the torches
of the Mountain Rescue Team long before they reached her. Some
of the Team members had climbed to the summit in the dark and
worked their way down to where she was.
She spoke of the rescue. "The Rescue Team linked me down,
one person held me by the hand and the other man linked me. They
kept on contacting the other groups at different parts of the
mountain. There were about four groups. They would contact each
group and as we would descend another part of the mountain another
group would meet us and each would come with flasks of tea, sandwiches,
and radios to keep in touch with their base camp."
Of her time trapped on the mountain, Janice said "I knew
it was very important to keep awake and to keep my mind alert.
I was doing little exercises every ten minutes. I would get up
and run on the spot. Even when I got hot I continued because I
was never so cold in my life. I hadn't eaten since 1 o'clock.
The Rescue Team offered me food and I couldn't eat it. I made
up for it since!"
Janice was very full in her appreciation of the Rescue Team.
"They were so well organised. Every half an hour I had a
different person on each arm and there was somebody in front picking
out the way down because I had a rope tied around me and there
was somebody behind me taking the weight from behind. They were
brilliant. They kept the humour as light as possible. they were
great fun. It took us two hours to get down. They were very relieved
they didn't have to tie me down as stretchers are very rigid.
The communications were very good. They brought me down to the
other side of the mountain down by the lake. The helicopter could
land there. The helicopter took me to Tralee around 1 o'clock
on Sunday.
Her husband Frank spoke of the worry he felt when waiting for
news of his wife. He said "I was fairly positive that my
wife would be okay but I began to imagine pictures of her being
injured. After a while things were looking bad. I was in the front
of the yard and I heard a crackle of a message coming through
from one Rescue Team to another 'bring her over a stretcher'.
I wondered if she was dead. There was no more word. About three
or four minutes later another message came through which I didn't
hear but a Rescue Team member called Tim who was the co-ordinator
got the word back to me that she was very cold but she was okay."
On Tuesday night the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team was in operation
again. Two 16-year-old girls staying at a hostel in Killarney
were rescued from a ledge. They were uninjured.
