'Heard loud roar, gasped for air, thought it was the end': Survivor recounts Uttarakhand avalanche horror

The roar came first - deep, guttural, a monstrous clash of sound that rumbled through the Himalayas like colliding thunderstorms. Then, the world turned white.

Vipan Kumar had just finished a grueling shift operating heavy machinery in the icy altitudes of Chamoli. Seeking warmth inside a makeshift metal container, he had only a fleeting moment to react before the avalanche swallowed everything. "I heard a loud roar, like thunder," he recalled, his voice trembling over the phone. "Before I could react, everything went dark."

The avalanche struck with force, burying workers under a suffocating layer of snow. In the eerie silence that followed, Vipan lay trapped, frozen by both ice and terror. "I thought it was the end. I couldn't move, I couldn't see anything."

Then, survival instincts took over. Gasping for air, he twisted his body, pushing against the crushing weight above him. Minutes felt like hours as he struggled, until—miraculously—he broke free. Stumbling through the freezing wilderness, disoriented but alive, he finally reached an Army base.

But others weren’t as fortunate.

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Metal containers tossed like tin cans

Not far from where Vipan was buried, dozens of workers lay asleep inside similar metal containers when the avalanche struck. The sheer force sent the structures tumbling down the mountainside like discarded tin cans. Some crashed onto a snow-laden road, crumpling under impact, their thin walls tearing apart like paper.

"The containers rolled down, and two fell on the snow-bound road," another survivor recounted. "We somehow crawled out and walked barefoot; some of us weren't even wearing proper clothes."

The workers—civil engineers, mechanics, cooks, and machine operators—had been sent to keep the strategic Mana Pass road clear, ensuring a vital supply route for Indian forces along the border. Now, they were the ones in desperate need of rescue.

Some made it out with minor injuries, but not everyone escaped unscathed. A project manager from Bihar was hurled out of his container, hitting the ground so violently that he required 29 stitches to close his wounds.

Yet, one worker remained missing. "The first person who fell from that container lives in Dehradun," an official at the military hospital confirmed. "Efforts are on to find him as he is still missing."

By Saturday, the survivors had reached Jyotirmath, where Army doctors treated the wounded. Vipan, his body aching with severe back pain, sat in a quiet corner of the hospital, his phone clutched in his trembling hands.

He had only one call to make—but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Back in Chamba, his wife, parents, and elder brother were anxiously waiting. They had no idea that Vipan had stared death in the face and walked away. "I last spoke to my wife at 5 am on Friday, minutes before the avalanche struck," he whispered. "Today, my family called me again, but...I couldn't tell them." His voice cracked.

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