Destinations known | Viral Kyrgyzstan avalanche video another warning of climate breakdown we’ll probably ignore
- The video clip is extraordinary – a mass of snow and ice shoots down a slope in the Tian Shan mountains and engulfs a trekking party, who all survive
- On July 2, debris falling from a glacier in Italy killed 11 hikers. But the events, probably exacerbated by climate change, are unlikely to deter adventurers
Doing the rounds on social media is an extraordinary video of an avalanche in the Tian Shan mountain range, which runs along the Kyrgyzstan-China border.
The 49-second clip begins with snow and ice starting to tumble down a gap between peaks 1km or so from where the videographer, Harry Shimmin, is standing. The deluge rapidly flows out across scree and lightly grassed rock until it is upon him.
Fortunately, the Briton and the others in his group of 10, plus guide, survived with little more than a cut knee and a few bruises between them.
Before the avalanche began, Shimmin had wandered away from the rest of the group and realised, when he “heard the sound of deep ice cracking behind me”, he had nowhere to run to, so he started filming.
“I’d been there for a few minutes already so I knew there was a spot for shelter right next to me,” he explained, in an account he posted next to the video on Instagram. The others were protected, too.