麻豆社

Avalanches can happen any time of the year. Already, in recent months, we鈥檝e seen climbers perish in Italy鈥檚 Dolomite mountains as well as climbers and local guides in the Himalayas.

The peak season for these huge and potentially lethal movements of mass amounts of snow is now underway in the northern hemisphere. To understand the dangers, and what it鈥檚 like to experience an avalanche, we hear from three survivors.

For mountaineer Cory Richards in South Africa, the impact of an avalanche while climbing the world's 13th tallest mountain in Pakistan, in 2011, left him and his two climbing partners thinking they were all about to die.

鈥淧robably what carried us mostly was the air blast and the debris as it started moving across the flat ground,鈥� says Cory. 鈥淚t picked us up and threw us several hundred feet. We were all tied together and we all ended up partially buried.鈥�

Fortunately for Cory and our other guests, JT Holmes and Benton Hodges in the United States, they survived. Benton was even part of the rescue mission to save his friend. But an avalanche can have more than a physical impact and we also hear about the effects on everyone鈥檚 mental health, sometimes years after the event.

Host: Luke Jones
麻豆社 producers: Iqra Farooq
Boffin Media producer: Sue Nelson
Editors: Arja Haikonen and Harriet Oliver

An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production in partnership with the OS team.

Photo: Mountain climber Cory Richards who survived an avalanche (Credit: Cory Richards)