A British hiker recently captured the moment a horrifying avalanche hurdled heading to his tour group late last week in the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgystan.
Posting a video on his Instagram account, 25-year-old Brit Harry Shimmin described the manner his group of 10 hiked through the Tian Shan mountains when they heard "the sound of deep ice cracking," before looking up to see the wall of snow shooting head toward them, a Mirror report specified.
Mr. Shimmin, in a sobering caption, detailed how he had been separated a bit from the group when the avalanche began and speculated that if they walked five more minutes along the Central Asian trail, they would not have endured such an experience.
Also, in his Instagram post, Shimmin wrote about nine Brits and an American on a guided tour of the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. He added they'd just reached the highest point in the trek, and he separated from his group to capture images on top of the cliff or hill edge.
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Tian Shan range, crossing the People's Republic of China, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Describing the 'Avalanche'
While the hiker was taking pictures, he heard the sound of deep ice tracking behind him. He explained that he had seen a site for shelter right next to him, although he acknowledged that he left it to the last second to move when the avalanche began.
In the thicker layer of ice and snow, a related report from The Independent can be seen hurtling over the head of Shimmin as he continued to film the occurrence. He went on to describe the feeling of being engulfed in an avalanche.
Behind the rock, the hiker described, the feeling was like being inside a blizzard. Once the occurrence was over, he said, the adrenaline rush hit him hard. It was only coated with a tiny layer of snow, minus any scratch.
Understanding Avalanche in the Mountains
National Geographic describes an avalanche as an occurrence in which "a mass of snow, rock, ice, soil," and other materials is sliding swiftly down a mountainside.
Avalanches of rocks or soil are often called landslides. Snowslides, the most common avalanche, can sweep downhill faster than the fastest skier.
More so, a snow avalanche starts when an unstable mass of snow breaks away from a slope. The said snow is picking up speed as it's moving downhill, generating a river of snow and a cloud of icy particles rising into the air.
Furthermore, the moving mass is picking up even more snow as it's rushing downhill. A massive, fully developed avalanched can weigh as much as one million tons. It can travel more rapidly than 320 kilometers an hour.
How an Avalanche Occurs
Avalanche takes place as layers in a snowpack are sliding off. Additionally, a snowpack is merely layers of snow building up in an area, like the mountainside.
During winter, repeated snowfalls build up a snowpack dozens of meters thick. The layers differ in both texture and thickness.
The bonds between the snowpack layers may be weak. Melted snow refreezing may result in a slick coating of ice forming on the layer's surface.
Lastly, a new snowfall may not attach to its slippery layer, and it may slide off. During the spring thaw, the melted snow can seep through a snowpack, making the lower layer's surface slippery. Additionally, weight or vibration can send the upper layers of a snowpack hurtling downhill.
A report about the Tian Shan mountains is shown on The Mirror's YouTube video below:
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