RESCUE EFFORTS HAVE succeeded at helping five people off of Howling Ridge in Carrauntoohil after they became stranded there last night.

At 11pm last night the group made a call to Kerry Mountain Rescue to say they were stuck on a ledge at the top of one of the steepest routes on the mountain, according to a Kerry Mountain Rescue spokesperson.

The search operation got underway at 6am; Kerry Mountain Rescue personnel were airlifted to the scene by the rescue helicopter R115.

Gerry Christie, from Kerry Mountain Rescue said that a decision was made to keep the stranded group on the mountain last night. 

“They had a short summer’s night on the mountain, it might have been uncomfortable but none of them were injured so the risks of going up there to get them in the dark outweighed the benefits.”

Rescue helicopter R115 was on standby to airlift the group off the mountain if necessary but with the assistance of Kerry Mountain Rescue personnel who reached the mountain at dawn they were able to be aided to the summit with ropes.

They are understood to be walking down the Devil’s Ladder path “tired and fatigued but otherwise safe,” Christie said.

Kerry Mountain Rescue expect them to be off the mountain within the hour.

This marked the team’s seventh callout in two weeks, having rescued a man on Saturday who sustained multiple injuries when he fell in the McGillycuddy Reeks.

The man was successfully airlifted by the R115 in a stretcher to University Hospital Kerry.

The callout began at 2pm and involved 27 members of the team before it concluded at midnight.