Mountaineer Survives 3 Days in Glacier, Now Fights to Save Them

When Anurag Maloo plunged 70 meters into a frozen crevasse on Mount Annapurna in April 2023, he had no idea those three days trapped at negative 40 degrees Celsius would change how the world talks about melting glaciers.

The mountaineer spent 72 hours in the ice with only his GoPro, recording thoughts from inside what should have been his tomb. When Polish rescuers and Nepali Sherpas pulled him out on day four, doctors declared him clinically dead.

It took nearly four hours of CPR to bring him back, one of the longest successful resuscitations in medical history. His case now appears in multiple medical journals, including the Air Medical Journal.

But Maloo didn't just survive. He found purpose.

In 2025, while still recovering, he founded The Voice of Glaciers Foundation. The goal is simple but massive: make people care about glaciers before they disappear completely.

The numbers tell an urgent story. Himalayan glaciers have lost over 40% of their ice volume since 2000, and ice loss rates have doubled in the same period.

For millions across South Asia, these aren't just pretty mountain scenery. They're water towers that feed rivers, sustain farms, and power entire communities.

The Ripple Effect

Maloo's foundation tackles three big problems at once. First, bringing glaciers into everyday conversations through festivals, public data, and awareness campaigns that make the crisis real for people whose water supplies depend on mountain ice.

Second, building digital tools that translate satellite and AI data into warnings communities can actually use. Think early alert systems and glacier monitoring platforms that help people downstream prepare for changes upstream.

Third, mobilizing money. Maloo wants glacier preservation to stand alongside forests and oceans as a top sustainability priority, drawing corporate and philanthropic funding to match the scale of the threat.

The World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader in 2025, giving his message a global platform. But he's focused on making glaciers matter to people who've never seen one.

During recovery, when standing felt impossible, Maloo kept going by focusing only on the next step. That same approach drives his foundation today: one community, one data point, one conversation at a time.

His message cuts through the complexity: Half the world's glaciers could vanish by century's end, taking water security for billions with them.

Sometimes it takes someone pulled from the ice to show the rest of us what's melting in plain sight.