A British hiker managed to film the moment an avalanche rushed over his head. Photo: Screenshot from video.
WATCH: Tourist engulfed by snow in HUGE Kyrgyzstan avalanche
‘Lucky to be alive’ is how British tourist Harry Shimmin described his tour group after they were caught in a sudden avalanche in Kyrgyzstan
A British hiker managed to film the moment an avalanche rushed over his head. Photo: Screenshot from video.
British tourist Harry Shimmin was part of a group of 10 people on a guided tour of the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan on Friday. When the group reached the highest point of the trek, Shimmin said he separated from the group to take photographs from a nearby cliff edge.
The hiker managed to capture the moments that followed – a near death experience – on video and the clip has since gone viral.
HUGE AVALANCHE CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Shimmin said while he was taking photographs of the surroundings he heard “the sound of deep ice cracking” behind him.
The Kyrgyzstan avalanche video clip starts with a sound of a roar in the distance. The sound gets louder and more terrifying as the snow rushes over the barren mountainside and closer to the cameraman.
When Shimmin realises the snow is about to overtake him, he says “Holy Sh*t” followed by a few more expletives.
At the last second – in the clip – the hiker dives into a crevice in the ground and we see the snow rush over his head.
In the caption that accompanied the video, Shimmin explained that the tour group consisted of nine Brits and one American.
Social media users questioned why the cameraman did not run away instead of filming the scene. Perhaps as a way of pre-empting this question, Shimmin wrote “I was on a cliff edge, so I could only run away from the shelter (hence why I don’t move).”
“Yes I left it to the last second to move, and yes I know it would have been safer moving to the shelter straight away.
“I’m very aware that I took a big risk. I felt in control, but regardless, when the snow started coming over and it got dark / harder to breath, I was bricking it and thought I might die,” he said.
KYRGYZSTAN HIKERS LUCKY TO BE ALIVE
Shimmin described being behind the rock like being in a blizzard and said an adrenaline rush hit him when it was over.
He emerged covered in just a thin layer of snow. When he rejoined the tour group some of them had sustained injuries but they were safe.
One woman had “cut her knee quite badly” and another had fallen off her horse and was bruised.
“The whole group was laughing and crying, happy to be alive (including the girl who cut her knee). It was only later we realised just how lucky we’d been,” said Shimmin.
According to the hiker, the path they were meant to follow went straight through the path of the avalanche and if they had walked five minutes further they would probably all be dead.
“To make it worse, the path runs alongside a low ridge, hiding the mountain from view, so we would have only heard the roar before lights out.”
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