MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAMS are regularly called upon to respond to emergency calls from Lugnaquilla — or ‘the Lug’ as it’s known by climbers.
Standing at 925 metres, it’s Leinster’s highest mountain.
Its wide, sprawling, plateaued summit means climbers often lose their way coming down.
The fact that the summit is shrouded in cloud most days doesn’t make things any easier, either.
On Christmas Day afternoon, both the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team and the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue Team were send out on the Lug, after Gardaí received a call from a hiker who had become disoriented on his descent.
Defence Forces personnel also joined in the near three-hour operation. He was found just before darkness fell, and walked off the hill.
“The thing about it is it’s a wide, flat summit, and can hold the cloud quite easily,” Declan Cunningham of Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue said.
The most popular, and direct, route to and from the summit skirts the army artillery range via Camara Hill.
However…
There are cliffs on two sides, and its also bordered by the Glen of Imaal firing range — so while other mountains may be forgiving, there’s danger on all sides there.
On a regular basis “cloud catches people out” Cunningham said.
They often find themselves approaching cliffs, or lost within the borders of the firing range.
“It that happens — if people feel they’ve made a mistake, they should stop and phone the mountain rescue service, and we can get on to the Defence Forces.”
The bottom line for people to remember is that they shouldn’t attempt an assault on the summit unless they are comfortable navigating with a map and compass, in poor weather conditions, Cunningham said.
People have no trouble finding the summit, but sometimes don’t take note of their surroundings going up.
“You need to have your route planned, and you need to make route changes if necessary if the weather changes. Don’t just stick blindly to the plan.”
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