By David F. Rooney
Greg Hill is off the Nepalese mountain that narrowly missed taking his life and is now in Kathmandu preparing to return home.
“It was a wild event by all standards,” he told The Current. “Around 24 people were caught sleeping in their tents and then blasted down the mountain. Luckily we were camped off to the side and were able to respond immediately and helped save some lives. The acceptance of risk seems to be a lot higher on the eighth highest mountain… and obviously the consequences as well.”
Hill was in Nepal to film a German team trying to set a speed record for ascending and descending Mount Manaslu. He is renowned for ascending and skiing down two million vertical feet (609,600 metres) over the course of 2010.
The CBC said a total of 231 people, including climbers and guides, were on the mountain on Sunday, but not all were near the camp where the avalanche struck. Missing Quebec cardiologist Dominique Ouimet was at Camp 3, located at approximately 6,800 metres, and was preparing to reach the summit.
Hill and his group were at Camp 2 lower down Manaslu when the slide struck.
According to the Indian Express, the peak has claimed 53 mountaineers between 1956 when it was first ascended and 2006, with only 300 climbers making it to the top.
