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A Nepali climbing guide, Dawa Sherpa, who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was presumed dead, has been found alive after crawling alone almost to Base Camp, officials told AFP on Thursday.
Mountaineer Sherpa, a seasoned climber in his 50s nicknamed “Hillary,” disappeared in bitter conditions on the mountain’s upper reaches early on May 30.
His miraculous survival shocked his family; his wife, Damu Sherpa, admitted at a Kathmandu hospital that the family had already surrendered all hope and begun offering traditional death prayers for his soul.
The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team that manages routes and clears waste on Everest, discovered Sherpa on Thursday morning.
Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, the agency overseeing rescue efforts, confirmed that the SPCC team spotted the guide crawling down near Base Camp.
A helicopter immediately evacuated him to a hospital in the capital city of Kathmandu, where doctors are currently treating him for frostbite. Despite his ordeal, he remains conscious and otherwise stable.
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Former British Royal Marine Chris Thrall had successfully summited the 8,849-metre peak with a Sherpa on May 29, just before the guide vanished.
Thrall recounted that during their descent on May 30 near Camp Four—just below the low-oxygen “death zone”—Sherpa sat down with his heavy backpack to rest and urged Thrall to continue ahead.
As Thrall moved down the mountain, he encountered a stranded Polish climber who had run out of supplemental oxygen and was suffering from severe frostbite.
Facing brutal weather conditions that extended their five-day trek into an 11-day ordeal, Thrall chose to assist the struggling Polish climber, assuming the experienced Sherpa would safely catch up.
Search teams launched rescue operations after Sherpa failed to return, but they found no trace of him until he arrived alone near Base Camp.
His survival marks a dramatic conclusion to the busiest Everest season on record, which saw more than 1,000 climbers reach the summit.
Sherpa’s disappearance occurred during one of the final climbs of the season when few mountaineers remained on the peak, which has claimed at least five lives this year.
