Snowboard mountaineer and adventure cinematographer John Griber is lucky to be alive after an avalanche hit him and his crew while filming on Mt. Everest last Saturday, according to a story in the Jackson Hole News & Guide.
It happened while Griber was descending the Khumbu icefall. A serac collapsed 3,000 feet above Griber on the west shoulder of Everest and came crashing down toward him. . . .“I was directly in its path,” Griber wrote in an e-mail to the Jackson Hole News&Guide. “There was no running from it. I jumped behind about a 15-foot serac but I was still clipped to the fixed line and couldn’t get close enough to feel super safe. The slide went over top of me; the force knocked the wind out of me; and snow filled my mouth and I couldn’t breath or see anything for 20 seconds.”
Apparently, no one was hurt in the slide. Griber is on Everest this spring collecting film footage for Eddie Bauer’s new clothing line First Ascent. How’s that for extreme advertising?
[Link: Jackson Hole News & Guide]
John… I’m glad you’re OK. I was so sorry to hear about the death of Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa in the avalanche.
If you don’t remember me, I met you at the Everest Evening fund raiser for the Alex Lowe Foundation at Snowbird. You signed my ice ax. If I’m not mistaken, you were one of the group that hitched a ride back to SLC with me.
I would appreciate it if you could email me a climbing bio and a climbing picture of you. I am trying to put together a booklet with a page for each person who has signed my ax.
I just read that you made the summit again this year…congratulations!
Yours Truly,
Rob Rowley
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