'Thought I Might Die': Avalanche Barrels Toward Hikers in Terrifying Video

A video showing the terrifying moment an avalanche barreled toward a group of hikers in Kyrgyzstan's Tian Shan mountains has gone viral on social media.

British hiker Harry Shimmin posted the video to Instagram over the weekend, which has already amassed more than 477,000 views and over 1,600 comments from stunned viewers, many of whom applauded the hiker's "nerves of steel."

Shimmin explained in his post's caption that he and his group had reached the "highest point in [their] trek" when the avalanche occurred.

"I separated from the group to take pictures on top of a hill/cliff edge. While I was taking pictures, I heard the sound of deep ice cracking behind me," he wrote. "This is where the video starts."

In the clip, snow can be seen barreling down the mountain across Shimmin at an alarming speed.

"Oh God," Shimmin said as the snow rushed toward him. "Oh dear God."

At the last second, he jumps down and takes shelter behind a large rock, but doesn't stop filming. Instead, he pans the camera above him to show the snow flying overhead.

"When the snow started coming over and it got dark/ harder to breathe, I was bricking it and thought I might die," Shimmin recalled. "It was like being inside a blizzard."

Thankfully, the entire group survived.

"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," he said, adding that he escaped "without a scratch."

"The whole group was laughing and crying, happy to be alive (including the girl who cut her knee). It was only later we realized just how lucky we'd been. If we had walked 5 minutes further on our trek, we would all be dead," he continued.

Avalanche Safety

According to the nonprofit organization DoSomething, more than 150 people are killed in avalanches each year. To avoid this fate, Sue Anderson, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue's avalanche mitigation supervisor, told Today in a 2015 article that people need to focus on staying above the snow.

"The first thing you want to do is stay on top...do a backstroke. Turn around; try and do anything you can to stay on top," she advised.

"If it comes over you and buries over your face, you want to fight, you want to swing, you want to punch," Anderson continued. "You want to fight as hard as you can to try to stay on top of that snow. When that snow stops, it settles down as hard as concrete. You have about a second to punch to get that airway done."

Fortunately, Shimmin was only covered by a "small layer of snow" during his encounter.

Instagram's Reaction

Viewers thought the video was "bada**" and many applauded Shimmin for having the courage to capture it.

"This is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen! " Jeff Zausch exclaimed.

"Friggin AMAZING and I don't blame you at all for filming as long as you did. Hell of a moment to catch and probably a great cautionary video for other aspiring hikers to watch. So glad you're all safe! Hope you packed extra undies!!!" Sean K wrote.

"Thanks so much for the video and description of what happened! I'm glad you/everyone else is safe & ok. And now the world has [a] very bada** video to see!" David Newkirk commented.

Fen added: "Holy S**T dude, nerves of steel filming that. Glad you're all alive."

Newsweek has reached out to Shimmin for comment.

More Avalanche News

An avalanche reportedly buried an Alaskan street under 60-80 feet of snow back in March. Thankfully, no one was injured during the avalanche.

Meanwhile in February, a Colorado skier triggered a large avalanche but managed to survive by holding onto a tree. That same month, a mountain climber captured the moment he was hit by an avalanche while climbing some 400 feet up.