‘The difference between life and death was a 20-metre stretch’: British tourist describes terrifying moment caught in avalanche in Kyrgyzstan
Tourist Harry Shimmin went viral after he filmed being caught in an avalanche
He belonged to a group of nine British and American trek in Kyrgyzstan
Said if the group had gone five minutes they would have died?
In This Morning interview, he described his thoughts when he was engulfed in snow
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A British tourist described the terrifying moment when he was caught in an avalanche in Kyrgyzstan, saying there was only 20 meters between him and death, during an interview with This Morning.
Harry Shimmin, from Mann Island, was part of a group of 10 tourists on a tour of Kyrgyzstan’s Tian Shan Mountains when a glacier plunged down the side of a cliff last week.
The entire group survived, although one woman suffered a very deep cut on her knee.
Harry filmed the avalanche of ice rushing toward him before finally engulfing him, in a video that has since gone viral.
During his interview today, Harry, who said he thought he might die in the incident, opened up about what he thought when he filmed the avalanche, revealing that he had “no profound” final thoughts.
Harry Shimmin, from the Isle of Mann, appeared on This Morning today to discuss the viral video he made of an avalanche in Kyrgyzstan
Avalanche: Harry was part of a group of 10 tourists on a tour of the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan when a glacier plunged down the side of a cliff last week.
Harry described the events leading up to the events on the video, saying that during the day’s walk, he had separated himself from the rest of the group and had gone ahead to take pictures.
Hearing ice cracking, he realized what was about to happen and began filming the avalanche — a decision that sparked some criticism.
“Some of the comments online said, ‘Why is he just standing there, why isn’t he running for his life, why is he just filming?’” he explained.
“They’re absolutely right, but what the video doesn’t show is the massive drop right behind me and the only direction I can run is straight for the avalanche.”
Harry added that there was a small shelter nearby, and given the choice between staying at the shelter or running towards the avalanche, he decided to stay.
This morning, co-host Dermot O’Leary asked Harry, “The difference between dying and living here is really the amount of snow you cover, right?”
He replied, ‘I think the difference between life and death at that time was a stretch of about 20 meters.
“So if I was on the other side of the hill” [with the rest of the group] then I’d probably have a little over 20 yards, maybe about 50 yards or so.
“Luckily most of the landslide, or most of the avalanche didn’t hit me. It was just this kind of powder cloud and light snow covering me. It was only a few inches of snow that was on top of me, so luckily I didn’t get buried or anything like that.
The last words Harry says on the video before the avalanche hits him are ‘oh God. Oh my God’.
Harry spoke to This Morning co-hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond (pictured) via video link from Kyrgyzstan
Speaking about how he was feeling at the time, Harry revealed that until then he had thought the avalanche would not reach him, but then he realized he had to try and get to the nearby shelter.
“I wouldn’t say there were any deep final thoughts… disappointing… it’s almost very sad I guess, but my last thought was, ‘I’m going to take a big risk here and make a decent video,’.”
He posted the video to Instagram three days ago, writing: “I am well aware that I took a big risk.
“I felt like I was in control, but anyway, when the snow started falling and it was getting dark/harder to breathe, I was bricking it and thought I might die.”
He added: ‘The whole group laughed and cried, happy that she was still alive (including the girl who cut her knee). Only later did we realize how lucky we had been. If we had walked 5 minutes further on our journey, we would all have been dead.’