Video: British Hiker Captures Nearing Avalanche After Taking Shelter Last Minute in Kyrgyzstan

A huge glacier collapsed on Sunday in the Juuku Gorge, located near the southern coast of the Kyrgyz Issyk-Kul lake, and one tourist made a video that will be remembered for a lifetime.

British national Harry Shimmin, who captured the jaw-dropping footage, noted in a social media post that he was part of a tourist group made up of nine Britons and one American, along with a guide. It was while the group was walking down a route when he fell behind to capture the landscapes and then heard the crack of a breaking crust of ice on the nearest mountains.

What followed after was a thing of Hollywood films - a rushing avalanche was coming right toward him.

"I’d been there for a few minutes already so I knew there was a spot for shelter right next to me. I was on a cliff edge, so I could only run away from the shelter (hence why I don’t move)," the author explains in the post's caption. "Yes I left it to the last second to move, and yes I know it would have been safer moving to the shelter straight away. I’m very aware that I took a big risk. I felt in control, but regardless, when the snow started coming over and it got dark / harder to breath, I was bricking it and thought I might die."

According to the tourist, it felt like a "blizzard" hiding behind the rock from the coming ice and snow and debris. The lucky man, who had overcome the avalanche, admitted that as soon as it was over, he felt a huge rush of adrenaline in his blood.

"I was only covered in light powder, without a scratch. I felt giddy. I knew the rest of the group was further away from the avalanche so should be okay," he went on to say. "When I re-joined them I could see they were all safe, although one had cut her knee quite badly (she rode one of the horses to the nearest medical facility). Another had fallen off a horse and sustained some light bruising."

More to the miraculous story, the author claimed that if the group had walked about five minutes ahead, towards the avalanche, hardly any of them could have escaped.

"We traversed it afterwards, walking among massive ice boulders and rocks that had been thrown much further than we could have run, even if we acted immediately. To make it worse, the path runs alongside a low ridge, hiding the mountain from view, so we would have only heard the roar before lights out," he concluded the blood-chilling account.

According to the emergency services of Kyrgyzstan, two officials of the Jety-Oguz district department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and a team of services responsible for the state of pastures left for the scene.

They will reportedly coordinate and be responsible for the elimination of the possible consequences of the glacier retreat.

The Juuku Gorge is one of the longest in Kyrgyzstan. Many tourist routes pass through it, and many, especially from other countries, visit it each year.