A British tourist on a guided tour in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan was enveloped by an avalanche. Rather than take cover, he filmed the whole thing, and is lucky to be alive. His video, posted on Instagram, is going viral on social media.
He was in a group of ten hikers, nine UK residents and one American. They had reached the peak of their hike when a huge cloud of snow came like a waterfall down the mountainside, after a glacier had broken off near the Juuku Gorge.
No one was seriously harmed, but if they had walked five minutes further, they might have all succumbed to the barrage of show and ice.
The video-taker, Harry Shimmin, said on Instagram that he had gone off on his own to take photos when he heard the sound of ice cracking.