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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gino Spocchia

Woman records moment she narrowly escaped Alaska rockslide

thedirtyexplorer / TikTok

A hiker recorded the moment she escaped with her life from a rockslide in Alaska after hearing a rumbling noise above her head.

Known as “The Dirty Explorer” on TikTok, the woman was filming in Juneau, Alaska, at the weekend when she heard a rockslide begin above her.

The hiker immediately began to run away from the mountain slope and waved her arms to alert a driver coming toward the rockslide to stop.

A low rumbling noise was heard in the clip before trees and rock debris fell onto the beach in the background.

“F*** me,” she was heard saying in the clip, which has since amassed more than 28 million views on TikTok.

The driver, who she said in a text overlay was driving at 50mph on a blind bend before stopping, was described as a commercial fisherman. He tells the hiker in the video: “Literally 30 f****** seconds from getting killed”.

The original video also prompted a series of follow-up videos from the Alaska-based hiker and explorer explaining what happened, as well as the cause of the rockslide.

Referring to Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, she said that rockslides were becoming more common as a result of a warmer climate.

State authorities say warmer temperatures are “producing more frequent rain” that increases the risk of a mass movement events such as rock and landslides.

One viewer wrote: “People being shocked climate change impacts literally everything is odd to me”, after some viewers expressed opposing views about the cause of the rockslide.

Alaska-based TikTok user The Dirty Explorer was filming live when the slide occurred (thedirtyexplorer / TikTok)

The Dirty Explorer went on to explain how she had been sheltering from fierce winds at the bottom of the cliff to record her live video, when she was interrupted by the rockslide.

She said she had “a thousand plus” people watching that live stream when the incident struck, and that a second rockslide occurred the following day. Her car was not damaged.

She also thanked the thousands of people who had commented on her videos for being engaged and interested in the rockslide.

According to AlaskaPublic, a similar event in December in Juneau caused a loud boom that some believed was an earthquake at first.

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