Two British climbers caught in a deadly avalanche 19,000ft up a Pakistani mountain in a recent interview detailed their ordeal and how they fought to survive after being buried under six feet of snow.
The pair from Glasgow spoke for the first time of the avalanche on Ultar Sar which killed the other member of their party, Christian Huber from Austria.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Timothy Miller recalled how he made his way out of their buried tent by ripping it with his teeth and battled to the surface before digging to save the life of his trapped companion, Bruce Normand.
Once free from the tent, the pair were left in a snowstorm in only their base layers and had to dig out their kit to avoid freezing to death.
Miller, a 21-year-old Geology student, and Normand, a 51-year-old physicist, then spent two days in their broken tent waiting for the weather to ease before they were finally lifted to safety by a Pakistani military helicopter.
The trio of experienced mountaineers was climbing the 24,239ft peak near Hunza when on June 27 the weather took a turn for the worse. At just over 19,000ft they settled in to wait for a break so they could go back down, digging a platform into the snow for their three-man tent.
Unfortunately, a small avalanche hit two days later burying them in six feet of snow.
Recalling the incident, Miller, who was nearest to the back of the tent, said: “The snow from the avalanche came down, filled the platform and buried our tent.”
Meanwhile, Normand and Huber were at the other end near the door.
“I ripped a hole with my teeth and managed to dig out. Bruce and Christian hadn’t managed to reach the surface,” he continued.
Digging down he found Normand barely conscious. Huber had managed to unzip the tent door but had then suffocated.
Normand said: “Being under 2m of snow is only slightly less terrifying than thinking about what will happen next, but you have little time to think at all.
“Tim [Miller] was the real hero. I had a hand up a semi-airhole and was still able to wriggle it a bit, but was less than semi-conscious. I think I was revived by his finding my hand rather than anything it was doing on its own.”
The men had only been clothed in their innermost clothing when in the tent.
“We were now outside in a snowstorm but only wearing our underwear,” continued Miller.
Miller then dug down to free their warm gear as Normand’s hands were too cold to dig. The pair then spent the whole night making a new tent site and boiling hot drinks to stave off hypothermia.
The pair then remained in their broken tent waiting for a gap in the weather.
“We still planned to climb down at the next opportunity but helicopters had already been organised by our friends, Miller said. “Importantly this also allowed Christian’s body to be taken down.”
Pictures of the rescue released by Pakistan’s military showed a helicopter perching on a narrow ridge during the rescue, which the British High Commission described as “remarkable and dangerous”.
The men paid tribute to the Pakistani pilots – Majors Abbas, Abid, Irtaza and Zia – and their local tour guides Abdul Ghafoor and Abdul Karim of Higher Ground Expeditions.
The pair are due to reach the capital on Sunday, before heading home on Monday. Huber’s body is being ferried to the capital by road.
Ultar Sar is described on mountaineering websites as a difficult and dangerous mountain to climb where there is a significant risk of avalanches.
The mountain at the end of the Batura Muztagh sub-range was only climbed for the first time in 1996.
