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OVER THE PAST year the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team have assisted 40 people who got in trouble, spending 1,771 hours out rescuing.
The team dealt with some very serious incidents, with two people dying in the mountains.
Poor weather conditions are often a feature in these call outs and rescuers have issued a warning to those hoping to get out over the holiday period.
PRO of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team Alan Wallace told TheJournal.ie that things “definitely get busier over the holiday periods”.
One of the reasons we’re so keen on getting safety messages out at winter is because conditions are more challenging and there’s a lot more potential for incidents.
“The big thing is to decide where you want to go and pick somewhere that is suitable. If it’s a forest walk, check if there’s a path you can follow.”
Wallace added that the team are called in for a lot of minor injuries as the terrain can be too difficult for ambulances.
“If it happened in an urban environment, an ambulance would be called. It might be on a forest track, but sometimes ambulances don’t have the equipment to get to them.”
Safety Tips
Kerry Mountain Rescue has the following safety advice for anybody considering a walk on the the mountains in the next fortnight:
Prepare and Plan
Develop the skills you need to judge hazards, including the ability to read a map. Consider the equipment, experience, capabilities and enthusiasm of your group, taking into account the time of year and the terrain -and choose your routes accordingly.
Clothing and footwear
Wear footwear with a treaded sole and ankle support. Clothing should be colourful, warm, windproof and waterproof, including hat and gloves.
Food and drink
Bring plenty of food and drink, high energy food such as chocolate and dried fruit are ideal. In cold, wet weather a warm drink is advisable, and always carry water.
Equipment
A map and compass are essential. A mobile phone and GPS are useful tools but don’t rely on your mobile – in may areas of the mountains there is no coverage. Bring a first aid kit, bivvi bag, whistle and a torch (plus spare batteries and bulbs). Climbers should wear a helmet and in winter conditions, an ice-axe, crampons and survival bag are essential.
Before setting out
Check the weather forecast and local conditions. Mountains can be major undertakings and, in the winter months, night falls early. Leave your route plan including start and finish points, estimated time of return and contact details with an appropriate person. Charge your phone battery and eat well before you start out.
On the hill
Keep an eye on the weather and be prepared to turn back if conditions turn. Make sure group leaders are experienced. Keep together, allow the slowest member of the party to determine the pace. Watch for signs of hypothermia, particularly in bad weather – disorientation, shivering, tiredness, pale complexion and loss of circulation in hands or toes, discarding of vital clothing.
If you think you need mountain rescue you can contact Kerry Mountain Rescue Team by calling 112 or 999 and asking for mountain rescue. Remember to keep injured or exhausted people safe and warm until help reaches you.
Delete instagram. Problem solved.
@Mr. Cullen: big time.
@Mr. Cullen: came to say that. I have deleted all social media apps. It’s a rabbit hole of disinformation. Leads to the next thing you don’t want in life. Can’t have a conversation about anything without the phone picking it up and bombarding me with adverts about whatever we were chatting about.
I have twitter and Facebook account under a fake name and only follow news and local things in my area. I block all who try add me as friends etc and only check them about once a week.
Social media is anti social.
@Mr. Cullen: comment of the day/week/month
@Rafa C: also a hood comment however less is more.
@Dman: thx
It’s mental, especially when the thing that affects a child the most is how happy their parents are. They worry about us just as much as we worry about them.
Social media is an increasingly polluted sewer.
People on social media complaining about being on social media, yawn.
Give me strength! Don’t be influenced!! Very easy….
@Caroline Urch: it’s a supply and demand thing though isn’t it?.. in the real world I mean.
I’m also a neurotic woman, can I write a weekly article here?
@: She left the comments open though. Oh and she put her name on it. So not that much of a pu$$y.
@Louis Jacob: Yes I’m sure that she has control over whether the comments are open or not.
Stay off Instagram & Tiktok. Full of nothing but degenerates ‘living their best lives’
Parents now have to deal with social media, parents before them lived under the gaze of the church. At lest parents of the “modern” era can just log out or press delete.
I think this is an extremely accurate and well written article, that will resonate with huge portion of parents.
In all fairness. Anyone taking life tips off influencers really need a reality check.
Anyone who cares what strangers think about them also really need a reality check.
Ah, another expert to advise us. Just what we need. Her problems are her problems, let her sort them in private
I think you need to wonder if even writing this column is good for you. It’s exhausting just reading it, never mind actually living it once and then recalling it for this column. Not necessary and not healthy.. and I can’t help but wonder do you maybe secretly welcome the mayhem as it’s content for your piece? With the greatest of respect, I think it was obvious to a lot of people that social media was always going to turn out this way. It’s not much more than a continuation of school yard ‘look what I got’ jealousy/popularity contest.. and most of it lies.
Look up Daniel Schmachtenberger on the tube, begin from there. Continue to grow past the strictures you describe!
@Chutes: I’ve seen that. Yeah. It’s very good. This is all very addictive shit though. We’re all trying so hard to be distracted.
We aren’t bombarded with images of perfection. We are bombarded with feigned images of what some people think perfection is. (and it’s often far from.)
It started with advertising, in terms of capitalism in the early 1900′s your ‘parents’ did have the same problems, but it infiltrated our lives less at the time. These days people’s lives exist on ‘their’ platforms, so the money machine is now creating housing for us to digitally live in. At the end of the day, Musk and Zukker are your bosses Margret. (It’s an old and obvious one but the Adam Curtis doc; Century of the Self lays some of it out really well).
You admitted your only get a snap shot of other lives – u know it’s not all sunshine and roses but yet it’s upsetting you? I think people who have this mind set should do themselves a favour and come off social media. If u can’t do that id advice you to think about it all in a different way. Also maybe look inward as to why this is upsetting you & I mean that with the best intent! Good luck
My parents were bombarded by my perfection. Lol.
I don’t agree. Back in the 70s, there were numerous adverts for diet aids and how compulsory is was to have a perfect beach bikini body. It was indicated you would only get men’s attention if you were slim. My mother was always miserable and moaning about being fat, yet my dad loved her no matter what size she was. When I look back at old photos she was not fat!
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