A group of hikers are lucky to be alive after narrowly escaping from an avalanche while on a guided tour in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan.
The group, comprising nine Britons and an American, had just reached the peak of their expedition when a torrent of snow and ice came crashing down the mountains.
Harry Shimmin, a member of the group, said on Instagram that he had gone off on his own to take photos of the beautiful scenery when he heard the sound of ice cracking.
“I thought I might die,” he said. Shimmin took shelter where he was, which he conceded was “a big risk”.
"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.” He then reunited with his group which escaped largely unscathed with only one person suffering a minor cut to her knee.
“If we had walked 5 minutes further on our trek, we would all be dead. The path runs alongside a low ridge, hiding the mountain from view, so we would have only heard the roar before lights out, "Shimmin said.
“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, it was harder to breathe.”
He added, ‘behind the rock, it was like being inside a blizzard. Once it was over, the adrenaline rush hit me hard. I was only covered in a small layer of snow, without a scratch.”
National Geographic explains that “during an avalanche, a mass of snow, rock, ice, soil, and other material slides swiftly down a mountainside."
“Snow slides, the most common kind of avalanche can sweep downhill faster than the fastest skier. "
A snow avalanche begins when an unstable mass of snow breaks away from a slope. The snow then picks up speed as it moves downhill, producing a river of snow and a cloud of icy particles that rises high into the air. The moving mass picks up even more snow as it rushes downhill. A large, fully developed avalanche can weigh as much as a million tons and can travel faster than 320 km/h.
Avalanches occur as layers in a snowpack slide off. A snowpack is simply layers of snow that build up in an area, such as the side of a mountain. In winter, repeated snowfalls build a snowpack dozens of meters thick. The layers vary in thickness and texture.