The man who died in a climbing accident near the top of Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain, in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks in Co Kerry on Saturday afternoon is likely to have been struck by strong winds and blown off the high ground, rescue services believe.
He was named yesterday as Mr Darren Murphy (21), from School Road, Ballineen, Co Cork. He had set out with a small party of three to four others but had turned back in the Hag's Tooth area, close to the west of the summit. He was making his way down on his own, when he sustained a sheer fall of 200 feet.
Rescuers believe it was likely a severe gust of wind struck him in an exposed area of the mountain. Conditions all day and at the time of the accident (between 2 and 3 p.m.) were atrocious and "wild and windy" with strong gusts and storm on the high ground, they said.
Kerry Mountain Rescue yesterday paid tribute to two experienced hill climbers from the Clare/Limerick area who came across Mr Murphy's body. One of the pair stayed with the dead man while his colleague went down the mountain to alert the services. "They saved us a lot of time by their quick thinking. This could have been a two-day search," Ms Eileen Daly, spokeswoman said.
The Shannon based coastguard rescue helicopter was called to the scene but was unable to assist because the winds were too strong. It was so windy at one stage that rescue vehicles at base camp were being rocked from side to side. Some of the party of 20 sent to recover the young man had to lie flat against the mountain with the radio under their hood to make contact with base and each other.
Mr Murphy's is the first fatality from a climbing accident in what has been a relatively quiet year in terms of call outs for the Kerry Mountain Rescue Service. Between late December 2001 and mid-July 2002 there had been five deaths and a number of injuries in climbing accidents on the Kerry mountains. This prompted a coroner in the inquest into three of the deaths to warn of the dangers of climbing, in winter, particularly, and to ask people to exercise caution.
Some 62 per cent of fatalities on the Kerry mountains and lakes to which the Kerry mountain rescue services are called are due to falls and most call outs are in Macgillycuddy's Reeks, their statistics show.