Sherpa survives 6-day Everest ordeal, crawls 12 kilometers from 25,000 feet without food or oxygen

In what climbers have called a miracle, a 52-year-old Sherpa guide who was presumed dead on Mount Everest after disappearing during the descent on May 29 was found alive six days later near Base Camp on Thursday morning.Dawa “Hilary” Sherpa – who earned the title for his mountaineering expertise – trekked more than 12 kilometers from the Yellow Range (25,000 feet) to Crampon Point (17,000 feet) in difficult weather without food, water or supplemental oxygen, crossing the treacherous Khumbu Icefall after the climbing season had ended and ropes and ladders had been removed from the route.Having given up hope, his family was reading prayers for his last rites when they were told that Dawa had survived, so they searched the remains of the tents for leftover food, water and the remains of bottled oxygen.Dawa was descending Everest at 5pm on 28 May with a group that included British climber Chris Thrall, a former Royal Marine, and a Polish climber when he was last seen near the Yellow Range on 29 May. Reports said the Polish climber made it to the base camp, but Dawa did not. Thrall even “praised” the invitation on social media, saying: “Rest in peace… Meru Dei.” Rest in peace, big brother.In a 13-minute video posted on Instagram on Wednesday, Thrall said: “Dawa sat down with his backpack to take a break.

These guys are carrying huge loads…” He added that he checked on Dawa before moving on. “I turned to him and said, ‘Hillary, are you okay, brother?’ He said: Yes, yes, I’m fine, Chris. Please go.”While descending, Thrall said, he saw a Polish climber from his team “suffering from frostbite and running out of supplemental oxygen.” He said: “I’m a Royal Marine – we’re taught to never leave anyone behind… I only have half a tank of oxygen left.

Do I take the Polish climber with frostbite, or do I go back to the Sherpa who will probably climb and be fine like he did a hundred times before? His version of events has not been independently verified.Thrall said he shared oxygen with the Polish climber and descended with him, and later reported Dawa missing after arriving at the lower camps. After mounting online criticism about why he would not return to participate in the Dawa Party, Thrall said he was tired of being called a “killer” on social media.

Once Dawa was found alive, Thrall said he was “overjoyed and very happy for him and his wonderful family.”The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) clean-up team, which was removing road equipment, discovered Dawa near Crampon Point and dropped him off before airlifting him to a Kathmandu hospital with frostbite and other complications. “He is in intensive care, but he is out of danger,” a doctor at Hams Hospital in Kathmandu said.The Dawa family had already begun their last rites when news of the rescue arrived, but the first call brought disbelief rather than relief. “We could not confirm whether this person was really our father,” said his daughter, Mohandu Lamu Sherpa. “We asked for pictures to be sent and only then were we sure and very happy.” After she met him in the hospital, Mhando said: “He recognized me…well and he talks. We are happy.”For climbers and guides, the part that stood out was not only that Dawa had survived for nearly six days without supplies, but that he was moving through active crevasses and broken terrain. Nima Tenzing Sherpa, an independent high-altitude guide, said: TOI“Two days in a deep crevasse below Camp One after a full week in the Death Zone? Surviving on the ice with a single packet of cookies at that altitude is an incredible feat of mental strength.

Most people would lie down and accept the end, but Dawa chose to fight. “It’s a mountain leopard.”Many guides and climbers have raised questions about the delay in finding Dawa and the rescue response. Mingma Si Sherpa, an independent high-altitude porter, told TOI that climbers often make “dangerous assumptions” about Sherpas because of their experience and achievements at high altitudes. “Foreign climbers assume we are invincible – a dangerous but common mentality.

When an elite mentor asks a client to move forward so he can rest, he is trusting that expertise.

Thrall made the choice to survive under brutal conditions.Others accused the Kathmandu-based agency employing Dawa Party of “negligence and indifference.” Pasang Gilgen Sherpa, an independent logistics coordinator for the expedition, told TOI: “It is a complete shame that Himalayan Traverse abandoned him at the peak of the peak. This is the dark side of a commercial Everest expedition – when time runs out, commercial teams disappear, and guides become unusable. Dawa saved himself, and his agency never gave him a chance.”

“They tried to reach Himalayan Traverse via text and calls to respond to the allegations, but their phones remained switched off.