Came to senses next to dead co-worker, spent 25 hours more to be rescued, says avalanche survivor

BRO worker Jagbir Singh came to his senses surrounded by an endless expanse of white, next to a dead co-worker, his body stuck inside mounds of snow with a fractured leg and injuries to his head.

Singh saw a hotel some distance away and took shelter in it for around 25 harrowing hours, eating snow when thirsty and battling piercing cold with only a single blanket to share with over a dozen of his companions — all of who were trapped under an avalanche in the high-altitude village of Mana in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.

Jagbir Singh from Amritsar said he was sleeping in his container at the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp when the snowslide sent them tumbling several hundred metres down. PTI