Mountaineering icon remembered

A MEMORIAL to one of Limerick’s most inspirational sports people has been unveiled.  A larger-than life picture of the iconic moment when climber, Ger McDonnell raised the Irish flag at the summit of K2 was unveiled in the Delta Sports Dome in the Delta Retail Park.  Sadly, the photo was one of the last taken of the brave mountaineer as he died that same day, August 2, 2008 in an avalanche which claimed the lives of 10 other climbers. Ger’s group had been on a mammoth expedition for eight weeks, surviving in subzero temperatures.

In an online despatch, he said that after the team set 31 July as their date for the summit bid, spirits were high. “Let luck and good fortune prevail, fingers crossed,” he wrote.
However, following the avalanche, a serac ( a column of ice)  fell, cutting all the fixed lines on his and his fellow members of the Dutch-led Norit K2 Expedition’s path.
It was said by the surviving members of Ger’s team that he refused to descend because he was helping others who were injured.
A native of Kilconrnan, he was the first Irish person to reach the summit of K2
Among his interests was playing the bodhrán in a band. He was described as a “philosopher” and a “great storyteller”.
Ger famously pucked a sliotar with a hurley from the south col achieving the highest Poc Fada in the world and later summited Mount Everest with Mick Murphy in 2003