Mumbai: The strong temblor that on Tuesday shook Nepal and parts of northern and eastern India brought back the chilling memories of the April 25 earthquake for 47-year-old mountaineer Lipika Biswas who was at the Everest Base Camp when it had hit the Himalayan country.


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The Kolkata-based Lipika ran out of her office in Eastern Railway chief engineer's office today after the tremors, to find a lot of people on the office veranda and outside.


The events at the Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 17,700 feet on April 25, however, were very different from those witnessed today, recalls Lipika, who could not climb the Everest last year after the climbing season was called off abruptly following a deadly avalanche.


"We were resting in our tents and immediately after the first shock, we ran out in the open," she told PTI.


Once out in the open, she and her fellow climbers started scanning the slopes of the world's highest peak, especially the Khumbu Icefall stretch, to assess if the route they were to take to the summit had had any impact.


"The entire glacier on which the camp is located was like a boat in choppy waters and it was still shaking as we stood outside. There was utter chaos and a cacophony of thuds all around. We were looking towards the Everest, but a loud noise on the other side, from the Pumori Peak, diverted our attention," she recalls.


It was an avalanche, "coming down fast resembling a


cloud", Lipika recollects. The memory still makes her tremble.


Avalanche is one of the most dreaded dangers which the climbers in Himalayas face. A gargantuan mass of snow, triggered by the quake, was now rolling down and the lives of over 1,000 mountaineers, Sherpas and support staff were in peril.


"My friends from Kolkata -- Sunita and Gautam -- were with me. We ran in different directions," she says.


Lipika saved herself by moving behind a boulder. Sunita found refuge behind another, while Gautam fell and remained in the open ground.


"Thankfully, the avalanche didn't stop where we were and passed us quickly." Within 15 minutes, they could locate what was remaining of their tent.


However, several other denizens of the 'tent city' at the base camp were not so lucky as they were caught unaware and had no time get out.


The tents of the 30-member Indian Army expedition team and an 11-member expedition team from Assam suffered the greatest damage, but the members of both the teams escaped the fury of avalanche because they were out for acclimatization and training exercises.


Within 30 minutes of the avalanche, Lipika's group started a long walk back to the civilisation and safety.


"The base camp is situated on a glacier and it was not advisable to stay on due to the possibility of after-shocks ... We started trekking down to Gorakshep with an emergency backpack," she recalls, reflecting that the classic mountain discipline of being prepared for disaster helped her come out quickly from her tent and run for cover.