KATHMANDU — A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest six days ago has been found crawling down to base camp in what has been described as a miraculous self-rescue after fears that he had died.
According to 8K Expeditions, which was coordinating the search for the missing guide, Dawa Sherpa was found by a clearing crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall.
Dawa, 52, was carried down to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to HAMS Hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals, were waiting.
“We first heard that he was still alive on the local news and from a person we know who called with the news that … he is being brought down,” his wife, Damu, said.
Dawa was assisting a Polish climber when he disappeared on May 29 above Camp 3, around 7,500m (24,600ft) above sea level. Hopes for his survival were slim as oxygen levels at that altitude are critically low.
There was a delay in organizing a search team, and when rescue helicopters were finally sent to find him, they could not.
“This is a true self-rescue,’” said Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions. “Dawa managed to survive against all odds for days. It’s nothing short of a miracle.”
Five people have died so far in this year’s climbing, three of them Nepalis who were involved in the Everest preparations, according to AFP News Agency.
More than 1,000 reached the Everest summit this season, making it the busiest on record.
An experienced climber, Dawa is also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after famed mountaineer Edmund Hillary.
Dawa was “slowly sliding through” the Khumbu Icefall toward Base Camp when he was found, Pemba Sherpa said, adding he was in overall good health.
“As far as I know, no one has survived alone at that altitude on Everest so far. This is a miracle to have survived for six days alone and descended safe. I think he must have lived inside the tents to keep himself safe,” Pemba Sherpa said.
For Dawa’s family, hope of seeing him again was all but gone.
Before he was found, Dawa’s wife told AFP that she had offered last rite prayers for his soul.
His teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they were already on the second day of a funeral ritual, which lasts for several days.
“When we first heard about it, we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father,” Mendo Lhamu said.
“So to be certain, we asked for photos to be sent, and then only we were sure and very happy.”
On Wednesday, Chris Thrall, a climber and former British Royal Marine, posted a tribute on Instagram for the climbing guide, thinking he had died on the mountain.
In the video he recalled that Dawa had “sat down for a rest with his backpack” as they descended from Camp 4, the highest campsite before the summit.
“And I turned and I said, ‘Hillary, are you okay, brother?’ He said, ‘Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!’” Thrall said. “This is nothing new, you know, I’d go ahead, he’d go ahead.”
As Thrall went down he found a struggling Polish climber, and they continued descending together. But Dawa never caught up with them.
The team that spotted him was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which lays ladders and ropes on the route at the start of each climbing season and then removes the equipment and cleans up the site after the climbers have left.
Source: Saudi Gazette