Mount Everest Avalanche Video: Climbers Post Footage, Tweets After Nepal Earthquake

The Mount Everest avalanche caused by Saturday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal will soon be seen around the world. German climber Jost Kobusch posted a video on YouTube Sunday showing the base camp before, during and after the avalanche that killed at least 17 people and injured 61.

The recording starts calmly as Kobusch, 22, who last year set the world record for solo climbing another Nepalese mountain, Ama Dablam, pans across the base camp. Then he says, "The ground is shaking," and everyone starts running. Kobusch swears repeatedly and appears to dive under his tent to wait out the avalanche. "As soon as we saw people running, we were running ourselves to save our lives," he wrote in the video's description.

Another video from Belgian climber Jelle Veyt shows the same moment. He and a friend start running before his camera lens is covered with snow.

Authorities from the Tourism Ministry told Reuters about 1,000 climbers were either at Mount Everest's base camp or en route to the peak about noon Saturday when the earthquake hit and triggered an avalanche. Many climbers sustained head injuries, among them Google executive Dan Fredinburg, who did not survive.

"Tents have been blown away," Gelu Sherpa said. "There is a lot of confusion on the mountain and the toll will rise."

Some climbers were being flown down Sunday as aftershocks and new avalanches continued to rock the mountain. Meanwhile, Kobusch and Veyt weren't the only ones to use social media to share what was going on. Other climbers used Twitter to update their followers.

Elsewhere in Nepal, Saturday's earthquake killed an estimated 2,500 people and injured more than 6,000, the Associated Press reported. The temblor, which also destroyed several historic landmarks, was the nation's worst in 80 years.