Watch: Massive Boulder Plows Through Base Camp, Misses Climber By Mere Inches
A climbing adventure in Pakistan had more drama than a group of climbers expected when a massive rock came hurtling through their base camp in a scene caught on a viral video.
Shayan Anwer posted video of the incident on Mount Spatnik in Pakistan on YouTube.
His video shows what might have been a normal base camp scene — normal, that is, until a massive rock comes into the picture, bounces through the camp end over end as members of the climbing party move aside to avoid injury.
The rock then destroys a tent and carries the wreckage with it as it rolls out of the frame. (Warning: Video contains profanity)
Anwer related his story to the website Unilad. He said the group he was with, along with two German groups, was at the mountain’s base camp but the climb delayed by bad weather.
“While waiting at the base camp for the weather to get clear, this one day I heard loud noise,” Anwer said.
“I saw everybody at the base camp shouting and running for cover when I looked up I saw a rock coming straight for the campsite. Because it was falling from a distance, I was not able to judge the size of the rock and I started filming it with my phone camera,” he said.
(Warning: Video contains profanity)
One of the few close calls we had. Rockfall at Spantik base camp. After few days of constant bad weather, it finally stopped snowing, but started raining rocks from the direction of Camp 1. Captured by my brother Shayan who nearly missed one too while filming it. #Spantikmemoirs pic.twitter.com/TALxEMhBbg
— Komal Uzair (@KomalUzair) August 24, 2018
Filming almost cost him his life.
“I only realized when the rock actually came closer and split into two pieces, that’s when I started to run for cover but by that time it had come too close already,” he said.
Anwer said he was far too close for comfort.
“It landed on our camp’s entrance, missed my face by literally a few inches and then after a bounce it took off and landed on the kitchen tent which it destroyed completely and then it almost hit this Swiss climber before going down into the Chogholungma glacier,” he said.
Because the weather had not lifted, the climbers spent a nervous night at the base camp, wondering when the next rock would come.
“Nobody slept that night, people took turns to warn others as rocks kept falling all night, we had a whistle which we used to blow to warn everyone at the base camp,” he said.
“Every time we heard a whistle we ran for cover, but the problem was during the day we could see this rock coming down on us while during the night we had no idea from which direction it was coming, so it was literally a gamble. None of those rocks hit the campsite though and I am glad to say this that nobody got hurt in this whole incident,” he added.
Some beautiful pics shared by @KomalUzair during her expedition to Spantik Peak with her brother @shayaananwer and other team members…
Spantik “Golden Peak” is a mountain in Spantik-Sosbun Mountains subrange of Karakoram in Nagar Valley, Gilgit Baltistan #BeautifulPakistan pic.twitter.com/cLV3vuTxoZ— Pakistan in Pictures (@Pakistaninpics) August 31, 2018
Although Anwer said he and his party were warned that part of the mountain was ready to collapse, he and his sister remained when others left and they eventually climbed the mountain.
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