Climber Crushed By Falling Boulders

© PeteH
Fair Head in fog  © PeteH
Fair Head in fog
© PeteH

Major Operation To Rescue Stuck Climber Below Fair Head, Northern Ireland:

A climber was pinned beneath huge boulders below Fair Head last Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said:

“When the Coastguard team arrived on scene they found a male climber at the base of the 600ft cliff who had become pinned by several large boulders that had fallen on him when he was about to begin climbing.

“Because of the nature of incident and the weight of the rocks the team was unable to free him, and so the helicopter was sent to Belfast to pick up a local Fire and Rescue team who have the specialist training and equipment needed to attempt to free the man.

“They also collected a doctor who specialises in crush injuries to give advice on safely manoeuvring the casualty.

“Once the specialist Fire and Rescue team and doctor arrived on scene the team assessed the casualty and sent the helicopter to retrieve more equipment. After five hours of work by all teams on scene the man was finally freed at half-past-seven and it was assessed that the safest way to transfer the casualty into the helicopter was to place him on a stretcher and for the Coastguard rescue team to take him up the cliff to the waiting helicopter.”

Full report on Grough.co.uk


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28 Jul, 2009
Hope they're ok. 600'?
28 Jul, 2009
anybody know the exact whereabouts of this tragic incident?
28 Jul, 2009
According to fairheadclimbers.com; at the bottom of, or approacing Halloween A few weeks ago my climbing partner suffered very similar accident beneath Fairhead, but managed to yank his foot free from amongst the sliding fridge sized boulders - escaped with a trashed rockboot and out of action for a few weeks with a mangled foot Try and stick to the paths and tread carefully folks
28 Jul, 2009
The local consensus appears to be that he dislodged & got trapped by the boulder on the walk in across the boulder field. Slightly different to what has been reported of boulders falling. Not to be belittling his injury but it seems the reporting isn't accurate once again. Best wishes & a speedy recovery to the injured party.
28 Jul, 2009
is anyone else getting weary of all the climbing accident news (I'm not having a dig at the site, nor at the people involved)? I know it's part of life and part of the climbing community, but as my social circle grows within the climbing community, I find myself becoming increasingly sensitive to hearing news such as this, because straight away I wonder if it's someone I know. This time, for example, I read the headline and straight away I had to think for a few anxious moments to figure out if a friend of mine had got back from a climbing trip to Fairhead. I remember reading something Joe Simpson wrote in one of his books about how he was once talking with a friend about how they were seriously considering giving up climbing solely on the basis of being tired of their friends dying all the time. I think I have a tiny glimpse of how he felt.
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