British tourist Harry heard ice cracking, then saw avalanche approaching in Kyrgyzstan

Harry shares his story on Instagram, where the video has been shared multiple 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 that Harry thought that, because it could have turned out very differently. But, he writes on instagram“I knew there was a place right next to me where I could take shelter.”

Only light snow on him

Harry describes what it was like when the snow thundered down on him. “It was like a blizzard. When it was over, there was just a little light snow on me. I didn’t have a scratch, I was just dizzy.”

He knew the rest of the group was ahead – he stopped to take pictures – and should probably be unharmed. Two traveling companions were injured. One tore her knee and the other had fallen off her horse and was bruised. “Everyone laughed and cried at the same time. We were happy to still be here. Later on, we really realized how lucky we were. If it had been five minutes later, we all wouldn’t have had no chance.”

Second time in a week

Harry and his nine friends walked on the ice floe of the Tienshan Mountains after the avalanche. “They were really gigantic boulders and boulders of ice that went way further than we could ever have gone. Even if we had acted right away.”

It is already the second glacier to break off in a week. Last week it happened in Italy, where there were deaths. Eleven people died after the glacier broke on Mount Marmolada.

Climate change

“It’s a phenomenon that will become more common due to climate change,” says meteorologist Reinier van den Berg of Buienradar. “There is often a lake at the base of a glacier. Meltwater accumulates in this lake, which is a kind of basin.”

But if too much meltwater ends up in this lake due to climate change, it will overflow. With all its consequences. It is impossible to say whether this also happened here. “It’s speculation about what happened here.” But it seems certain that we will have to deal with these kinds of accidents more often in the future.

The avalanche was also filmed in Italy: