Dubliner who survived Everest avalanche set on return to Nepal

Dubliner Paul Greenan may be on a crutch for some time but says he has "one good leg, one good arm" and one good aim to return to Nepal.

The 38-year-old adventurer, who survived an avalanche that claimed 17 lives when it hit Everest base camp just over a week ago, admits the full extent of his experience of the Nepalese earthquake disaster has not yet hit home.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake has already reached 7,300, with thousands of others injured and up to eight million people affected by the devastation.

Mr Greenan, a director of plant hire company Hire Here Ltd, was the only Irish person among 170 in the region to sustain serious injuries.

"I have had no surgery as the doctors say everything has to mend on its own," he told The Irish Times as he made the journey home to Shankill from St Vincent's hospital in Dublin yesterday.

He sustained a broken pelvis, about five broken ribs, a broken hand, a punctured lung and bruises to his kidney and spleen.

Like Co Longford aeronautical engineer Paul Devaney, who was also at base camp last week, Mr Greenan is attempting to climb the world's seven highest summits and abandoned Everest last year after 16 Sherpas died in avalanches.

He had signed up with British commercial expedition company Jagged Globe and was on a rest day in his tent at base camp in hot sunshine on April 25th when “the mountain began to growl”.

“We were used to the ground moving, as we were on a glacier, and we were wearing just merino wool vests and tights to keep cool,” he said.

“There was this violent shaking, we ran out of the tents and looked up towards Everest as there had been some minor icefalls in days before.

“Then someone shouted to look behind us and there was this avalanche coming towards us from Pumori,” he said, referring to the 7,161m peak some 8km west of Everest.

“We were sort of transfixed and then that turned to ‘oh s***, run quick’ and we had about five seconds,” he said.

“I was conscious through it all as it flipped me over and I was hit with what felt like a very strong wave, and a hammering of rocks.

“There was this terrific noise and then silence, and then the sound of people crying and calling out.”

Mr Greenan said a rush of adrenaline helped him to stand up “but I kept falling down and my right arm seemed to be four inches longer”.

“My first reaction was that this would affect my summit attempt and so I was trying to shove a dislocated elbow back into its socket, hoping that the team leader wouldn’t notice.”

His team-mate, Google executive Dan Fredinburg, didn't survive, while another colleague, British-born Richard Brooks, was also injured.

“The medical tent was only 20 metres away from us, so I was the first taken in,”he says.

“I was flat on my back and remember at one stage telling other people if the quake struck again they’d best get out, as there was no way I’d make it.”

Mr Greenan was flown out in one of the first rescue helicopters to the village of Pheriche, and from there to Lukla and to Kathmandu. The Department of Foreign Affairs negotiated his transport to Norway on a returning relief flight and from there he was flown to Dublin.

“So many people helped me along the way and I’ll never forget one ambulance door opening and I was greeted by 20 smiling Norwegians,” he said.

He is determined to return but says that he may tell his mother next March that he is “heading for the Costa del Sol”.