Nepal earthquake: Ridgetown woman to join relief efforts in Nepal

A Ridgetown, Ont., woman who survived the massive earthquake that struck Nepal last week arrives in the country's capital city today to pitch in and help the victims of the quake.

Heather Geluk was already in the neighbourhood, climbing a Tibetan mountain when the 7.8 magnitude quake hit.

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CBC's Afternoon Drive host Robin Brown reached her in Lhasa, Tibet on Tuesday, the day before she was to board a flight to Kathmandu.

"I'm going to be rolling up my sleeves and [helping] with any relief efforts; walking out to a lot of those villages, distributing tents and water sanitation treatment and helping in any way that I can to help people rebuild their lives," Geluk said.

As a mountain climber, Geluk has been a frequent visitor in Nepal over the past 15 years. She says she's thankful to have a chance to give back to the people there.

Geluk is also thankful she lived to tell the story of the earthquake, which has killed more than 7.500 people.

Geluk, an experienced climber, was just across the Nepal border, on a mountain in Tibet at the time of the quake.

She said it sounded like an avalanche was coming and then the ground moved beneath her.

"It was quite violent, to the point where we tried to run, but we couldn't. We fell, and then crawled to an open place and sat there and cried and hugged and hyperventilated and prayed, to be honest," she said. "It was the longest 20 seconds of my life."

The group she was with only learned it was an earthquake after making a four-hour trek back to base camp.

"My initial reaction to that was, 'avalanche,' because there was zero visibility. There was a mountain basically on all four sides of us. It felt like having four loaded guns pointed at you at the same time and wondering which was going to shoot," Geluk said.

Geluk plans to spend a few weeks helping in the relief effort in outlying villages in Nepal.

She says the experience will not stop her from climbing mountains.