The UK’s Sky News reports that Sir Richard Branson, along with his son, nephew, and a handful of other climbers were “seconds away from certain death” on a charity climb of Mont Blanc

“A side of a cliff had broken away from the mountain further up and seconds later huge boulders the size of small cars were bouncing towards us. Rocks rained down on us from every angle,” Branson told Sky. “I am not exaggerating when I say four of our team were seconds away from certain death. I have never come so terrifyingly close to losing my son and other teammates and it all happened in a matter of seconds,” he said.

Branson’s son, Sam Branson, posted a video of the incident to his Instagram account.

Simon Lowe, Managing Director of the British mountain guiding company Jagged Globe, said on Twitter that his staff deemed the route too perilous to cross earlier in the week.

It's not the "gully of death" it is called the "Grand Couloir". #jaggedglobe last team of the season turned around there on Wednesday, realising it would be foolish to cross & then cross again on the way back down, even if that meant missing the summit. https://t.co/R3Pz6lIfGZ — Simon Lowe (@sprlowe) September 30, 2018

It appears the episode convinced Branson and his team of Lowe’s logic. They were airlifted off the mountain by helicopter rather than undertake further risk.