Harry Simmin, who was among nine Britons and an American on a guided tour of the Tian Shan mountains, said they were lucky to survive after a chunk of glacier cut off. If they walked “five minutes further into our journey, we’d all be dead,” he said in an Instagram post. “We would have only heard the roar before the lights went out.” Simmin, 27, said they had just reached the highest point of the route when he broke away from the rest of the group to take pictures at the top of a cliff. “I know very well that I took a big risk,” he said, but “I felt in control.” Still, “when the snow started coming and it got darker (and) harder to breathe, I bricked it and thought I might die,” he added. “I was on the edge of a cliff 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 be safer to move to the shelter immediately.” His video shows a carpet of ice and snow rolling down the mountain, getting closer and closer until it reaches its summit. “Behind the rock was like being in a blizzard,” he said. “As soon as the adrenaline rush was over it hit me hard. I was covered with only a small layer of snow without a scratch. “I felt dizzy. I knew the rest of the team was further away from the avalanche, so I should be OK.” Image: Harry Simmin says he was “bricking it”. Photo: Harry Shimmin via Viral Hog Although they were all safe, one person had “cut her knee really badly” and “led one of the horses to the nearest medical facility”. “The whole team was laughing and crying, happy to be alive (including the girl who cut her knee),” Mr Shimmin said. “Only later did we realize how lucky we were. “If you look closely in the video, you can see the faint gray path winding through the grass. This was the path. “We then crossed it, walking between huge blocks of ice and rocks that had been thrown much farther than we could have run, even if we had acted at once. “To make matters worse, the trail runs alongside a low ridge, hiding the mountain from view, so we would only have heard the roar before the lights went out.”
