People are told to reconsider climbing the Wicklow Mountains after the weekend crowds

People have been told to reconsider traveling to the Wicklow Highlands in part due to the Covid-19 risk of a rescue situation.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin and Wicklow Mountain rescue team, Valerie Hayes, said social distancing is difficult during emergency rescues.

“We would ask people to seriously reconsider going to the mountains at this time,” Hayes said on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“It is very difficult for us to operate safely with Covid to rescue someone safely. It is impossible to socially distance yourself by carrying a stretcher.

“You may be walking within your 5k [radius from your home] and you’re socially estranged, or you’re traveling or walking alone with your family members, but if you get injured, you’re suddenly in very close contact with at least 12 people. 12 new people.

That puts you at risk, puts us at risk. Our team is made up entirely of volunteers. Many of us are healthcare workers too and this carries added risk after returning to healthcare settings when we have been exposed to so many new close contacts.

He said a call over the weekend, which generally took 15 minutes to arrive, took rescuers 45 minutes to access.

He said this is partly because “a lot of people park in front of the gates.”

Hayes said rescuers have keys to the doors, allowing them “to get the equipment closer to the injured party faster.”

“Cut miles of carrying equipment and lowering a stretcher from the mountain,” he said.

“Therefore, we ask people not to park in front of barriers and to make sure that the road is not reduced to a single lane of traffic up the mountains, because it really slows down our access to the mountains.”

She said rescuers are seeing more people visit the mountains than could live within a 5 km radius of the area.

The surrounding areas are not densely populated, he said, so “there really shouldn’t be that many people walking in them.”

Gardaí in Wicklow were in the highlands over the weekend to control traffic volumes.

“The emergency vehicles would not have been able to access several areas yesterday due to the obstruction caused by illegally parked cars. Several cars were towed and today two cranes have been deployed to help, ”said Wicklow Gardaí on Facebook.

Last week, Gardaí told people to “please stay away from the highlands.”

“It is dangerous at the moment due to the conditions and risks exposing the emergency services to unnecessary risks if we have to come to their aid. This is apart from any breach of Covid regulations, ”said Wicklow Gardaí.

This is due to the icy weather conditions of the past week, with temperatures often reaching zero degrees.