Harry shared his story on Instagram, where the video was shared several times. Below you can also see how the glacier falls towards Harry. “For a moment I thought I was going to die.”
It’s no surprise Harry thought so, because he could have been completely different. But, writes on Instagram: “I knew there was a place next to me where I could hide.”
Just light snow on it
Harry describes how it was when the snow broke out over him. “It was like a blizzard. When it was over, there was a little light snow on me. I didn’t have a scratch, just got dizzy.”
He knew the rest of the group was ahead – he stopped to take pictures – and he probably shouldn’t have been hurt. Two travel companions were injured. One of them tore his knee and the other fell off a horse and got some bruises. “Everyone laughed and cried at the same time. We were glad we were still there. Later we really realized how lucky we were. If it had been five minutes later, we all would have had no chance.”
The second time in a week
Harry and his nine friends walked over the floating ice in the Tianshan Mountains after the avalanche. “It was already giant boulders and ice boulders that went further than we could run to. Even if we acted immediately.”
It is already the second glacier to break in a week. This happened last week in Italy, when there were deaths. Eleven people died after the avalanche on Mount Marmolada.
Climate change
“It’s a phenomenon that will become more common because of climate change,” says meteorologist Rainer van den Berg of Poenradar. “There’s often a lake at the base of a glacier. Melt water collects in that lake, and it’s kind of a bowl.”
But if a lot of meltwater ends up in that lake due to climate change, it will overflow. With all its consequences. It is impossible to determine if this also happened here. “It’s speculation about what happened here.” But it seems certain that we will have to deal with these types of incidents more often in the future.
The avalanche was also filmed in Italy:
