KATHMANDU: A Nepalese climbing guide who was missing on Mount Everest for six days and thought to be dead was found alive after crawling alone almost to the base camp, officials said. AFP THURSDAY.
His wife had even begun offering last rite prayers for his soul, she said. AFP at the hospital in Kathmandu, the capital, where he is recovering from “a few frostbites” but is conscious.
Mountaineer Dawa Sherpa – who is in his 50s and is better known as “Hillary” after the famous mountaineer Edmund Hillary because of his experience – disappeared on the heights of the world’s highest mountain in difficult conditions early on May 30.
He was found Thursday morning near the base camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepalese team that helps plot routes on Everest and clean up trash left behind.
“He was found by an SPCC team this morning near base camp – he was crawling down,” said Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, who was overseeing the search and rescue efforts. AFP.
A helicopter transported him to Kathmandu, where a AFP the team saw him being carried away on a stretcher.
“I spoke to the doctors – he has frostbite, but otherwise he seems fine,” added Pemba Sherpa.
His wife Damu Sherpa said her family was delighted.
“We were very happy to hear the news, we had lost hope,” she said. “We also started the puja (death prayers) yesterday.”
“Mountain Tiger”
Mountaineer Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he successfully climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak with Sherpa around 5 p.m. on May 29.
He posted a video message on Instagram on Wednesday mourning what he thought was the death of Dawa Sherpa.
He called him “a completely gentle giant man and a true ‘mountain tiger,'” in a message that assumed the worst.
Thrall described how, on May 30, he began descending from Camp Four – around 7,950m – and just below the low-oxygen “death zone”.
He said that while coming down, Dawa Sherpa stopped.
“He sat down to rest with his backpack, these guys are carrying huge loads,” he said.
“And I turned around and said, ‘Hillary, are you okay, bro?’ He said, “Yes, yes, very good Chris, please go ahead, go ahead!” It’s not new, you know, I would go ahead, he would go ahead. »
As Thrall descended, he found a Polish climber struggling after running out of supplemental oxygen and suffering from frostbite.
“It was a long walk to the summit. What should have taken five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that’s how difficult the conditions were,” Thrall said.
“So, do I go back and get Sherpa, who will probably lash out and be fine, like he’s done hundreds of times before?” he added.
“Or do I help my fellow climber, who has no oxygen, frostbite on his fingers, and obviously we are never far from hypothermia up there?”
Thrall described difficult conditions, sharing his oxygen tank with the Pole during their descent, taking 11 hours to arrive at camp three. This would typically take two hours.
“I realized we were in a really serious situation,” he said.
Search teams began looking for Dawa Sherpa, but he was not seen again until Thursday morning, when he had gone down alone.
The climb was one of the last of the season, meaning there were few other climbers on the summit.
At least five people have died this season: two Indians and three Nepalese climbers involved in preparations for Everest.
More than 1,000 climbers have reached the summit of Everest this season, according to initial tallies from Nepalese authorities, making it the busiest season on record.
