RESCUE SERVICES in Kerry were called to assist two men in separate incidents on mountains on Saturday.
A 30-year-old experienced walker from Galway was descending from Carrauntoohil in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks when he fell about 50m.
As the mountains were covered in cloud all evening, it was not possible to airlift the man from where he had fallen, so he had to be taken by stretcher to a lower location.
He was lifted off the mountain at 10pm, Kerry Mountain Rescue spokesman Damien Courtney said.
The man’s companions kept him warm and provided information to the rescue team to help pinpoint their location, Mr Courtney said.
It was the first time the Irish Coast Guard’s new S-92 Sikorsky helicopter, commissioned in July, was used in a rescue on the reeks.
The man, whose injuries are not life-threatening, was recovering yesterday at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee.
Separately, the Dingle Coast Guard rescued a man suffering a suspected broken ankle on Mount Brandon. A helicopter was unable to assist the rescue operation because of fog on the mountain, so 15 members of the Dingle Coast Guard took the man by stretcher to a waiting ambulance at the base of the mountain.
