Last week, Hungarian climbers David Klein and Marton Nagy faced a terrifying avalanche during their climb of the rarely attempted 7,403m Istor-O-Nal in the Hindu Kush. Miraculously, both survived the ordeal.
This marked Klein’s second try at the peak in as many years, with his previous attempt being alongside Bence Kerekes. This year, the mountain was buried under a significantly heavier snowfall than last year, slowing their ascent. After acclimatizing at the start of July, Klein and Nagy launched their summit bid early last week.
On July 2, they reached Camp 1. Two days later, as they approached Camp 3, disaster struck. A massive avalanche roared down a couloir and spread across almost the entire slope. The 400-meter-long slide almost swept them away, but the safety rope they had clipped into earlier saved their lives.
Started small, became gigantic
Later Klein vividly recalled those drawn out moments of the avalanche.
I see the wall of snow standing tall above me huge clumps of snowballs floating in it and I throw myself into the air. I don’t want my legs to get trapped and snap like twigs. And I want as much snow as possible under me and as little as possible above me…
Like a scream caught on a hook I float in the white flood. I feel a pop or two: I think the attachment points above me [come out]. The rope is stretched tight like a violin string as the avalanche pulls and tugs at my entire body.
My attention wanders in two directions: I wonder what is happening above me, at each of the anchor points of the rope? Where will it break? Also, what will happen below? It is true that the mass will only push us along for 300-400 meters, but at the end of the journey there will be 1.5 rope lengths of steep ice waiting for us…
Klein’s partner Nagy described those endless moments like this
“I was climbing up our rope, following the path we had made. When I noticed some snow moving in the corridor to the right, I thought it was funny that a small avalanche was going to pass us by. I even laughed and told David about it.
But when I looked up again, the snow had turned into a massive, roaring avalanche. It wasn’t going to pass by because the entire slope was moving.
At first, I still didn’t take it seriously and thought it would just slide past and I’d keep climbing.
That idea didn’t last long. The avalanche swept me off my feet almost immediately, but I had a backup plan. I tried to position my legs to swim to the top of the snow, but that didn’t work. I was tossed around in all directions, feeling the anchors on the rope snapping above me. Then another one snapped.
It never crossed my mind that our thin ropes just 7mm and only 6mm in one section could break under the weight of all that snow. By the time I realized it, I was already at the tail end of the avalanche. I sat down and dipped my hand into the 15-20cm deep river of snow around me, which felt oddly warm and silent.
I looked around for David to see how he was doing. He was in the center of the chaos. I could only see his legs, and he didn’t even know which way was up. It worried me. But somehow, he stayed on the rope, found his head up and feet down, and when I asked if he was okay, he just gave me a thumbs up.”
After the avalanche Klein and Nagy safely descended that night. Two days later, they left base camp and are set to fly back to Hungary soon.”
