Climber hurt in cliff fall was also a volunteer rescuer
THE climber who fell 20ft at Le Gouffre was a member of the cliff rescue team, it has been revealed.
Dan Edmunds, president of the Guernsey Mountaineering Club, confirmed that it was a member of the club who had fallen.
The 60-year-old had the fall at around 3pm on Sunday. He was rescued by a team including paramedics from St John, the St Peter Port lifeboats, the cliff rescue team, and Guernsey Coastguard.
Mr Edmunds said the mountaineering club is relatively small, with 60 or 70 active climbers.
‘We meet every week in the summer for club climbing nights, and people are free to go out in the week or at weekends to do individual or smaller group climbs,’ he said.
New members can join during the winter and attend indoor training sessions to learn the ropes and acquire some of the knowledge and experience that is needed for Guernsey’s cliffs.
There are designated training officers and newcomers are trained appropriately.
‘But out on the cliffs it’s about putting all the knowledge and experience together,’ Mr Edmunds said.
‘Safety is very important to us, and it is actually a very safe sport, but accidents can happen and Sunday was an example of that.’
Although he did not know what went wrong with this climb specifically, he said his thoughts were with the man and hoped he recovered from his injuries soon.
‘It’s quite unprecedented for things like this to happen in the club, I think even some of the older members of the club wouldn’t remember a time when there was a call-out of this scale,’ he said.
‘Some of the climbers with [the man who fell] had been on climbing courses in the UK, and the man himself was a member of the volunteer cliff rescue team, as are several others in the mountaineering club.
‘It’s unfortunate for this to happen to him but he would have known he was in safe hands.’
Mr Edmunds congratulated the rescue teams on their fantastic recovery job and took the opportunity to remind islanders that while the cliffs are beautiful spaces and can be fun to walk on, they are dangerous if you do not know what you are doing.
‘You can have all the gear but no idea, it’s so important not to put yourself in a position of vulnerability so you have to be confident with climbing and competent to get yourself out of a situation.’
People should not climb unless they have a degree of experience under their belt.
'Keep checking your mirror, give way to emergency vehicles'
ROAD users should check their rear-view mirrors regularly for emergency service vehicles, the president of Home Affairs has said.
A Twitter user told Mary Lowe that they were following a Coastguard vehicle as it travelled from St Martin’s to Town with its lights flashing.
‘It’s unfortunate because not a single car moved out of its way,’ they said.
To this, Deputy Lowe replied: ‘Time is of the essence for the lifeboat crew to get out to sea ASAP.
‘Perhaps the green lights on the vehicles aren’t prominent enough?’
She said she saw a vehicle along Les Banques stuck behind traffic this afternoon with its green lights flashing.
‘Drivers should keep on eye on their mirrors,’ she warned.
In another tweet she wrote: ‘[It is] always a concern when people ignore the warning signs and climb the cliffs he/she end up putting numerous others in danger when they have to be rescued.
‘Glad everyone across the emergency services and agencies involved completed the rescue and [are] all safe.’
Free app could be life saver, says cliff rescue team
A FREE app can tell the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre your exact location, saving vital seconds in an emergency.
The plea for all islanders to download the What3Words app follows a multi-agency response to an incident in which an experienced climber fell 20ft down the cliff at Le Gouffre.
Members of the island’s cliff rescue team were deployed to the incident on Sunday to assist the climber who had an accident while out on a recreational climb.
The cliff rescue team is a volunteer organisation operating under the umbrella of the Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service.
The team provides expertise in assisting persons injured or at risk on the cliffs of Guernsey.
A spokesman for the team said that although all of the correct safety procedures were in place, the injured man had still had an unfortunate accident.
‘Because they were experienced it shows that no matter how prepared and careful you are, accidents can and do happen. So we urge anyone thinking of doing a climb to make sure they do everything they can to ensure their safety.
‘Also, please download the free What3Words app as this will allow you to tell JESCC your exact location [to within a 3x3sq. metres] – saving vital seconds in an emergency.’
The injured man hurt his leg and arms and the cliff rescue team wished him a speedy recovery.
