Chris Hemsworth recounts near-fatal Himalayas excursion

'The next step was oxygen in my brain and then goodnight, we wouldn't be sitting here,' actor says

Chris Hemsworth (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Chris Hemsworth has given an insight into the gruelling effects a mountain trek can have on the body.

After accompanying his wife Elsa Pataky for a television programme where they trekked up the iconic mountains on the Indian subcontinent, Hemsworth said they reached 4,000 metres above sea level before he started to take a turn for the worst.

Demonstrating that even action heroes can be subject to altitude sickness and other effects, the Thor actor told US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel this week that those effects were nearly fatal.

“I’m in the tent and my breathing is getting worse, like Darth Vader meets Daffy Duck,” he says telling the audience his wife soon went to alert fellow mountaineers who after taking one look at him decided he needed to get off the mountain.

“They start injecting me with all sorts of whatever’s going to adjust my oxygen intake, oxygen mask on and fly down the mountain for eight hours in the four-wheel drives.

“But apparently it was oxygen in my lungs, the next step was oxygen in my brain and then goodnight we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

The 33-year-old also spoke of the effects the climb had on his mind, explaining he had “altitude depression”.

“I slowly honestly started to lose my mind, like just completely irrational, overly sensitive to the most trivial things," he said.

“For some reason I couldn’t handle it,” Hemsworth concluded of the climb, explaining he was the only trekker who failed to acclimatise to the change in altitude.

“You need a new travel agent,” Kimmel advised.