Canadian Dies in Fall on High Ireland Mountain

Canadian Simon Paquette died this week after he fell more than 100 metres while hiking along the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks Range.

Paquette and his partner, understood to be aged in their late 20s/early 30s, were walking along the Kerry mountain range when he fell from Beenkeragh, which is Ireland’s second highest peak.

There were over 30 search and rescue workers who looked for Paquette throughout the night.

Paquette’s partner remained with him on her own on the mountain until searchers managed to reach them in darkness.

Communication was poor and there was quite heavy fog. It was very cold during the night and the team were in thermal gear, he said.

A spokesperson for Kerry Mountain Rescue said, “It was unclear where they were – there was a lot of fog on the mountains which made it more challenging. We launched a large-scale search and located [the woman] at around 8/9 p.m.”

He said that “at one point, we could hear her shouting for help but it took us about an hour after that to pinpoint exactly where she was.”

He said that the man was unresponsive when they got there and the woman seemed distressed as they brought her off the mountain.

They got the man on the stretcher and brought him down off the mountain after midnight. The fog was still “clinging” to the top half of the mountain, the spokesperson said.

“We got him down to the level ground, where he was put into the Land Rover at about 12.30am.

“The helicopter was there for a while to try help locate them but the fog was too dense. We had to call in reserve team members to help carry gear up to where we were. That’s not a common thing, but search was so extensive.”