A SALISBURY climber trapped on Everest during the earthquake that devastated Nepal last month has spoken of her ordeal.

Jo Bradshaw was trying to become the first British woman to tackle Everest and the neighbouring Lhotse, the world’s fourth highest mountain, back to back.

When the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on April 25, Jo and her climbing partner Rolfe Oostra had just arrived at Camp One — 6,000m above sea level.

Jo, an experienced climber who has tackled summits all over the world, was attempting Everest for the first time to raise money for children’s charity Place 2 Be and Nepalese charity Support4Sherpas.

She said: “We were in the tent and we heard this most horrendous and loud avalanche noise. We are used to that noise but this was something different.

“The ground under our tent just dropped and I thought a crevasse was going to open up and we were going down.

“It was hard to stand upright it was like being on a wobble board. Then we were just blasted by all of this snow. Rolfe thought we were going to be buried.”

Jo added: “In a normal avalanche situation, the snow comes from one direction but this was going from two or three directions. We had nowhere to run to and we had nowhere to hide. Then it suddenly stopped.

“We hadn’t appreciated that it was a full on earthquake, we thought it was the glacier having a major move which is very uncharacteristic as they normally move slowly.”

But Jo counts herself as lucky in many ways.

She avoided the major devastation at Base Camp and had just navigated the treacherous Khumbu Icefall moments before the disaster.

“We were trapped,” she added. “Because the ladders and ropes that were set-up to get over crevasses were destroyed or unstable enough that you would have fallen in.

“One of the best climbers in the world went to see if it was safe to climb down but he said it would have been suicidal.

“So that is why we were helicoptered off 48 hours later. Which was fine because we had enough fuel and supplies to last us that long.”

The short trip back down to Base Camp was on a stripped-out helicopter with enough room for two passengers. Jo was charged $2,500 for the journey which lasted minutes — something she hopes to claim back on her insurance.

“We landed and we started walking up through camp,” she said. “It was like being on a film set, there was this line drawn, on one side everything was normal, on the other tents were ripped and shredded.

“The middle section of camp where we were was most badly hit.

“When we walked into what was our camp, there was absolutely nothing. We spent two days digging for kit although I did manage to find my mobile phone.

“I warmed it up, switched it on and it worked perfectly.”

Despite her experiences, Jo hopes to go back to Everest next year and complete her challenge. — which will include taking DofE participants on the trek to Base Camp.

  • Jo will be visiting Cotswold Outdoor Salisbury on Wednesday, June 10 to present a talk on her experiences in Nepal, the subsequent earthquake, its effects on Everest and the rest of the country.

Tickets will be £7.50 each including a raffle entry and all proceeds from the event will go to Support4Sherpas. Seats are limited and can be booked at the store on Queens Street or by calling the store on 01722 410659.