The group huddled down on the snow as the avalanche crashed down Mount Everest's rocks and ice (Picture: Al Carns' X)
The group huddled down on the snow as the avalanche crashed down Mount Everest's rocks and ice (Picture: Al Carns' X)
Veterans

Watch: Special Forces veterans survive avalanche during Everest attempt

The group huddled down on the snow as the avalanche crashed down Mount Everest's rocks and ice (Picture: Al Carns' X)
The group huddled down on the snow as the avalanche crashed down Mount Everest's rocks and ice (Picture: Al Carns' X)

Veterans Minister Al Carns has shared dramatic footage from the avalanche his team of four veterans experienced when they were climbing the world's highest mountain.

The group huddled down on the snow as the avalanche crashed down Mount Everest's rocks and ice, according to the video posted on X.

"Don't move, don't move, don't move," a man said in a muffled voice as the white cloud cascaded down.

Mr Carns' camera was then covered in snow from the avalanche, and the only noise to be heard was the wind buffeting the quartet on the mountain.

Following the avalanche, the group said expletives and checked everyone was still alive and well.

"Two weeks ago, we got caught in an avalanche… not ideal," the former Royal Marines Colonel said in the post.

A sherpa confirmed that the group got through an avalanche.

Afterwards, Anthony "Staz" Stazicker, 41, spoke to the camera and said that "fortune favours the brave".

"So, Sunday 18th [May] at 4:55 am in the morning just above the football field," he said. "Come out of the Khumbu Icefall heading towards camp one."

"We managed to get caught up in a small avalanche.

"Thankfully, it just passed straight through us and over us. Covered us. But, yeah, quite lucky.

"Live to fight another day. Fortune favours the brave."

The Mission Everest team had revealed that they had made it safely through an avalanche in their first broadcast interview with BFBS Forces News last month after reaching Mount Everest's summit.

Major Garth Miller described the dangerous experience from a pizza restaurant in Kathmandu ahead of them getting their flight back to London Heathrow.

Maj Miller said the group was "very lucky" as they could not escape the avalanche.

"The avalanche came down one of the sides of the Khumbu Icefall. And we knew it was going to hit us because we could see that it was enormous," he said.

"We just had to hold position, and we hunkered down on our hands and knees.

"We were breathing oxygen, so we were never going to be buried."

The expedition leader added that the avalanche "didn't feel extraordinary".

Carns breaks his silence on Everest Xenon gas controversy

After the avalanche, the four veterans conquered the summit and waved a Union Flag when they reached the 8,849m peak – the flag belonged to Mr Carns, who said he had carried it with him on every tour.

The team set a new record by completing the epic trek from London to the top of Everest and back in just seven days, with the aim of fundraising close to £1m for veterans’ charities.

The team was made up of Maj Garth Miller, 51, former Royal Marines Colonel Al Carns, 45, Anthony "Staz" Stazicker, who was seen on television's SAS: Who Dares Wins, and Kevin Godlington, 49, one of the founding members of the charity Tickets for Troops.

Controversially, the team also inhaled xenon gas ahead of the expedition.

The technique, which is undergoing experimentation, is thought to help the body make extra red blood cells.

Donations can be made to the Mission Everest team here.

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