UKC

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..."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=48547

In reply to UKC News:

Hope they're ok.

600'?

In reply to UKC News:

anybody know the exact whereabouts of this tragic incident?

In reply to Mike Raine:

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

In reply to UKC News: 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.

In reply to UKC News: 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.

In reply to Andy S: Hey Andy. Did we meet in Pembroke 5 years ago? Chuckle Brothers?

No I'm not thinking of giving up for that. Maybe I've been very lucky, but so far the one's I thought who died were either the ones I knew were idiots and could do nothing about or the ones doing Simpson esque proper big hill mountaineering (in which field I'd be the idiot). Thankfully so far, touch wood, there have been no counter examples.

Also, they've exaggerated it a bit, and even UKC have used a wholly misleading headline (I assumed there was a death - you would be if anything fell the full height of fair head and hit you), but there are interesting aspects to this rescue - it not being tourists, the guy being trapped, it being the head.

In reply to UKC News:

Does anyone know the name of the injured man?
I have a friend who boulders regularly in Fairhead and I can't get hold of him yet!

In reply to Paz:
>UKC have used a wholly misleading headline (I assumed there was a death

I think that's unfair. A death would usually command a word like "death", or "killed" (etc) in the headline. The headline doesn't mention Fairhead either. Fairhead is mentioned in the subheadline which also mentions efforts to rescue a stuck climber, which hardly implies a death.

In reply to Paz:

Don't understand the reference to the Chuckle Brothers but I remember a guy called Paz and his mate very well. I've actually got not one, but TWO cool photos of you guys climbing, if you check out my gallery!

I've seen you on here a few times but didn't know if it was the same Paz. You climbed on an adjacent route to us on Misty Walls and we also saw you on another route. I can't remember where were chatting, must have been the campsite or the pub? I was with a young lad called Rich.

In reply to AndyM-LVB:

http://fairheadclimbers.com/forum/index.php?topic=77.0

In reply to UKC News:

Thought the main headline suggested something different to what happened but did not think the overall item was misleading.

In fact reading it put me in mind of Sunday, boulder hopping along Coastguard North on Portland where a number of loose boulders rocked alarmingly as we made our way. At the time I thought that if one of the larger rocks moved as you stepped on it things could get pretty serious.

Pretty unlucky but goes to show it pays to be careful ... I can think of a number of sites where boulder fields have at least ankle snapping potential. Just one of those things you have to bear in mind when out and about really.

Hope the guy involved is okay and, if you are reading this, wish you a speedy recovery.

In reply to UKC News:
Is this kind of reporting really necessary? There are plenty of climbing accidents from the very big to the very small and i don't want to hear about them all (if any of them, they tend to be quite dull and often saddening). While the accident that has been reported is unfortunate and i wish the fella a speedy recovery after what must have been a frightful ordeal I hardly think it to be "news".

I suppose it highlights the dangers of rockfall but to be honest if you're a climber and you don't know the dangers of hard things falling on your head etc then you probably shouldn't be a climber. A reasonable amount of common sense is a standard requirement and its not the job of UKC to educate punters to the detriment of the quality of news that is reported.

In reply to Will Hunt:

First off, I hope the climber involved makes a full recovery, sounds like quite an ordeal.

On your point, I disagree. If you read the article, it wasn't rock fall but a boulder slide on the path below the crag.

As a recent visitor to Fairhead, I'm glad to have a warning about a specific crag hazard (ie. the stability of the approach path below the main crag). Yes, crags are dangerous places but some clearly are more dangerous than others and I think many would like to be aware of known accident black spots.

In reply to Will Hunt: You echo some my own feelings on this subject

In reply to Will Hunt:


We run many news items that help educate, and will continue to do so. They are run at our Editor's discretion. Thanks for the feedback.

Three examples here:

VIDEO: Easter Accident Prompts Safety Video
by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC Apr/2009
This news story has been read 19,198 times

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=46912


Climber Injured At New Yorkshire Sport Crag
by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC 13/Jul/2009
This news story has been read 6,020 times

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=48329

VIDEO: Broken Karabiner - UKC / BMC Safety Video
by Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC Jun/2009
This news story has been read 8,032 times

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=48095

Mick Ryan
Senior Editor
UKClimbing.com

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I think the articles that you have pulled out aren't really that comparable. I thought the two on gear were worthwhile. This is not information that is readily available without a gear testing facility! The second one was relevant as it pertained to a newly developed crag not described in any guidebook which many people may have been visiting in the search of new routes etc. This particular report seems fairly run-of-the-mill (forgive me, this does not make it any less crap for the poor guy involved). It is really the job of the guidebook to warn of this kind of danger. [i]Every[/i] crag has its own particular dangers and it is the job of the climber to spot them and, if they are not obvious, the job of the guidebook. My objection is really to the "clogging up" of the news page with something which, while it has value, is slightly out of place and unnecessary. Anyways, doesn't matter.

In reply to Will Hunt:

Get a hold of yourself fella, you're sounding like a crank. An article about an accident would be considered as climbing news by most readers of this site, and I would hardly consider it to have clogged the news page or to have been out of place there. There have been articles about accidents in the news page for as long as this site has been running.