Nepali climber found alive after six days missing on Everest
A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was feared dead has been found alive after crawling back to Base Camp, officials announced, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
The experienced Hillary Dawa Sherpa disappeared on the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain early on May 30.
He was discovered on Thursday morning near Base Camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team responsible for helping set climbing routes on Everest and cleaning up waste left on the mountain.
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“He was crawling down,” said Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts.
“A helicopter has been sent to bring him to a hospital in Kathmandu.”
Climber Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he successfully summited the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak with Sherpa around 5:00 pm on May 29.
He later posted a video message on Instagram on Wednesday mourning what he believed was Sherpa’s death, describing him as an “absolute gentle giant of a man and a true ‘tiger of the mountains’.”
Thrall said Sherpa stopped during their descent on May 30 as they were coming down from Camp Four, located at around 7,950 metres, just below the low-oxygen “death zone.”
He said Sherpa paused to rest.
“He sat down for a rest with his backpack, these guys carry huge loads,” Thrall said.
“And I turned and I said, ‘Hillary, are you okay, brother?’ He said, ‘Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!’ This is nothing new, you know, I’d go ahead, he’d go ahead.”
Thrall said that while descending, he encountered a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplemental oxygen and suffering frostbite.
“It had been a long summit push. What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that’s how challenging the conditions were,” he said.
“So, do I go back for Sherpa, who’s probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?” Thrall added.
“Or do I help my fellow climber, who’s got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you’re never far off hypothermia up there?”
He described severe conditions on the descent, saying he shared his oxygen cylinder with the Polish climber, and it took them 11 hours to reach Camp Three, compared to the usual two hours.
“I realised we had a really serious situation,” he said.
Search teams were deployed to locate Sherpa, but he was not seen again until Thursday morning, when he made his way down on his own.
The climb occurred during one of the final expeditions of the season, meaning there were few climbers left on the mountain.
At least five people have died this season, including two Indians and three Nepali climbers involved in Everest preparations.
More than 1,000 climbers reached the summit of Everest this season, according to initial tallies by Nepali officials, making it the busiest season on record.
By Nijat Babayev
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