Survivor of Mount Everest avalanche that killed thousands remembers moment of terror

Independent

21-05-2025

A decade after surviving a devastating earthquake and avalanche on Mount Everest, adventurer Alex Staniforth is marking the anniversary with an ambitious feat: climbing 446 mountains across England and Wales.
In 2015, a 19-year-old Staniforth was on his second attempt to summit Everest when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal.
The quake triggered an avalanche that swept down the mountain, an experience Staniforth vividly remembers. The disaster claimed thousands of lives and left thousands more injured.
10 years on from the earthquake, he recalled: 'At this point, I wasn't aware of an earthquake. I didn't feel the ground shaking, but my teammates did. I was completely on my own, and I remember feeling something was wrong.
'I could sense there was an avalanche coming towards us, but I couldn't see it because the cloud was so bad… I remember feeling really confused, and then feeling this massive blast of white just knocking me off my feet.
'For the first time in my life, at 19, (I remember) thinking 'This is it, game over', and that sickening feeling of fear that I've never really felt before.'
The motivational speaker, who lives in Kendal, Cumbria, said he is 'grateful' to have survived the avalanche and is now commemorating 10 years since the earthquake by scaling 446 mountains across England and Wales in 50 days for charity.
In the UK, a mountain is generally considered to be a summit of more than 2,000ft (600m), according to the Ordnance Survey.
Mr Staniforth said: 'I'm very grateful that I survived that day, but I think, ever since then, I've just tried to make it count and try to give something back, and I hope that this challenge will do that.'
He is raising money for Mind Over Mountains, the charity he founded in 2020, which focuses on using walks in nature and venturing outdoors as a tool to support people with mental health issues.
He said the charity helps to 'give people the tools to stay mentally and physically well' by providing safe spaces for people to walk and talk about challenging topics around mental health and suicide.
'The outdoors has always been my natural health service, and I want other people to have access to that,' he said.
'By doing this challenge, it's not only opening conversations around mental health and suicide, but it's actually directly providing more access to (the outdoors), which, for me, is what makes it all worthwhile.'
The challenge started on Friday with the mountains of Yes Tor and High Willhays in Dartmoor, Devon, and Mr Staniforth is expected to finish in the Lake District at the end of June to mark his 30th birthday.
The whole journey will be human-powered because he is running and cycling to every mountain before scaling each one.
His bike ride was 103 miles (166km) and his longest run to come will be 36 miles (58km), while his highest mountain climb will see him tackle 11,483ft (3,500M) of ascent.
He said he wants his challenge to provide a 'bit of hope' for young people, particularly those approaching their 30s, who might be struggling to find a sense of purpose in life.
'I think when a lot of people reach 30… they feel like they're not where they should be or they feel like they're not where they want to be,' he said.
'There's a lot of mental health challenges and depression, and I just wanted to be a bit of hope for those people that things can go wrong but you can always pick yourself up and find another way.
'I think Everest, for a long time, was like my idea of success. It was like the be all and end all, and actually it's given me much bigger opportunities.'
The adventurer has already faced ankle issues and feeling sick from the 6,500 calories he is eating daily, but said the recent good weather and support from his team has encouraged him to persevere.
The journey will see him travel from Dartmoor to Bristol and through the Brecon Beacons and North Wales, before reaching the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland and the Lake District.
So far, Mr Staniforth has raised nearly £12,000 of his £100,000 target which forms part of Mind Over Mountains' Project 500 campaign to raise £500,000.