A man who heard a “deep cracking of ice” says he was “bricked” and thought he might die when an avalanche came down a mountain towards him in Kyrgyzstan.
Harry Shimin, who was among nine Britons and an American on a guided tour of the Tien Shan mountains, said they were lucky to survive after a piece of glacier broke off.
If they went “five minutes further down our path, we’d all be dead,” he said in an Instagram post.
“We would hear the roar just before the lights went out.”
Mr Shimmin, 27, said they had just reached the highest point of the trek when he broke away from the rest of the group to take pictures on top of a cliff edge.
“I’m very aware that I took a big risk,” he said, but “I felt like I was in control.”
However, “when it started snowing and it got dark (and) harder to breathe, I was wallowing in it and thinking I could die,” he added.
“I was on the edge of a cliff, so I could only run away from the shelter (that’s why I’m not moving).
“Yes, I left it to the last second to move, and yes, I know it would be safer to move to the shelter right away.”
His video shows a carpet of ice and snow rolling down the mountain, getting closer and closer until it passes over its summit.
“Behind the rock it was like being in a blizzard,” he said.
“After it was over, the adrenaline rush hit me hard. I was covered with only a small layer of snow without a single scratch.
“I feel dizzy. I knew the rest of the group was further away from the avalanche, so it should be fine.”
Image: Harry Shimin says he ‘blocked it’. Photo: Harry Shimin via Viral Hog
Although everyone was safe, one man had “cut his knee quite badly” and “carried one of the horses to the nearest medical facility”.
“The whole group was laughing and crying, happy to be alive (including the girl who cut her knee),” Mr Shimin said.
“It was only later that we realized how lucky we were.
“If you look closely at the video, you can see the faint gray trail winding through the grass. That was the trail.
“We then crossed it, walking among massive ice-boulders and rocks, which were thrown much farther than we could have escaped even if we had acted immediately.
“To make matters worse, the trail runs along a low ridge, hiding the mountain from view, so we would only hear the roar before the lights went out.”
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