Salisbury adventurer survived Mount Everest's deadliest avalanche

Jo Bradshaw had just crossed the Khumbu icefall and set up base in camp one when a catastrophic earthquake hit.

An eerie silence fell upon Jo's tent before the mountain started rumbling and the ground "just felt like it was disappearing" beneath her.

Jo rushed out of her tent as the ground was shaking and avalanches were tumbling down the west shoulder of Everest and Nuptse on either side of camp one.

"We had a radio call from our base camp manager who said Everest base camp is destroyed and we lost three sherpas," she said.

Earthquake clear up at Everest Base Camp (Image: Jo Bradshaw)

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 2015, claimed 18 lives, with a 19th person dying afterwards.

This made it the deadliest day in the history of Everest and Jo had to be airlifted off the mountain.

Despite the near-death experience, Jo was not put off. Instead, she returned one year later and summited the mountain on May 19, 2016.

11 years prior to this she was living the "safe life" as a business advisor in Buckinghamshire.

Encouragement from a close friend to 'make the best out of her life' resulted in Jo stepping out of her comfort zone to take a skydive over Hinton, Buckinghamshire.

This kickstarted her drive to start living her life doing the fun things she wanted to do but was too scared to do before.

Jo Bradshaw preparing for her first skydive. (Image: Jo Bradshaw)

Prior to this, she said her risk aversion had grown significantly, adding: "You start to come up with all these barriers and reasons to not do things.

"I think we all do it, I just did it on steroids where I’d say yes to lots of things then back out."

In 2008 Jo decided to change her life completely, leave her job and move to Salisbury to join Discover Adventure.

She said: "I halved my salary, sold my fancy 4x4, rented out my house and went from suits and business events to jeans, walking boots and a new way of life."

Jo Bradshaw on the Denali summit in 2017. (Image: Jo Bradshaw)

Listen to some of our other On Point podcasts here:

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• Sally Orange MBE on mental health and running 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days

Now, she's a self-employed outdoor instructor and expedition leader who is on a mission to reach the summit of the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

So far Jo has raised money for children's mental health with Place2Be by summiting Mount Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and Mount Vinson.

The Oceanic Carstensz Pyramid remains Jo's final objective to complete her mission.

Hear more about Jo Bradshaw's journey, surviving the deadly avalanche at Mount Everest and how she changed her mindset to live the life she wanted to in our podcast - Salisbury Journal: On Point.