Chicago man survives Mount Everest avalanche

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago man is among the survivors of the avalanche on Mount Everest. The retired Chicago firefighter says he was having lunch when the earthquake hit.

PHOTOS: Nepal earthquake, inside the aftermath

Viorell Wally Stirbu started his journey to climb the seven summits of the world in 2012, and he was scheduled to reach the seventh and final summit on Mount Everest on May 15. He was weeks into his 60-day trip when the earthquake triggered an avalanche, interrupting the climb and taking the lives of several friends. Now he feels thankful to be alive.

Wally, as he is known to family and friends, is a native of Romania but has been living in Chicago since 1978. A firefighter for 27 years, he retired a year ago and focused on mountain climbing. The 63-year-old was at the base of the camp having lunch with friends at nearly 18,000 feet above sea level when he felt a huge avalanche.

"All of a sudden earth started shaking, then the mountain started to come down," Stirbu says. "All of sudden we get a look and it looked like a tsunami with dust and snow coming over it."

Stirbu says the avalanche lasted about five minutes then everything went silent, so they went outside to look around. The scene they encountered was destruction. Eighteen people died in that part of the camp including, Stirbu's friend Google executive Dan Fredinburg.

"We made like an ER room out of our kitchen," he says, "then we try to tend to the wounded and the second day they sent a helicopter and picked up the patients including the critical ones and the those who passed away."

Stirbu says during the earthquake and avalanche it felt like he was in a whirlpool or washing machine. He is an endurance sports veteran, having participated in 20 triathlons, but he says this was something he had never experienced before. He also says he may try to finish his Mount Everest climb again next year when things calm down.