A Remarkable Survival Story on Mount Everest
In what authorities are describing as an “astonishing” tale of human endurance, a Mount Everest sherpa was found alive on Thursday after going missing six days earlier on the world’s highest peak. The incident has captured the attention of many, highlighting the extreme conditions and challenges faced by those who work on the mountain.
The sherpa, identified as 52-year-old Hillary Dawa Sherpa, was discovered by a garbage collection team that spotted the mountain guide “sliding and crawling” down an icefall just above Everest base camp, according to officials. This discovery has been hailed as a miracle, given the harsh environment and the physical toll such an ordeal would take on a person.
Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions, which coordinated the search for the missing man, described the situation as extraordinary. “He was found in a condition where he was slowly sliding down through the icefall. It is in itself an astonishing incident,” he said.
A Nepal-based hiking company that participated in the search shared a social media post stating that the guide survived the ordeal “alone for nearly a week without food, water, or supplemental oxygen.” The post emphasized that this was nothing short of a miracle.
Dawa was suffering from exhaustion and severe frostbite on his hands when he was found. He was then flown by rescue helicopter to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he was reunited with his family.
Dawa’s daughter, Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa, told reporters at the hospital, “He recognized me … is good and speaks.” She expressed her happiness at being reunited with her father.
Dawa went missing last Friday, May 29, after he got separated from his client, a Polish climber, at an elevation of 24,600 feet. This is about 1,600 feet below the area known as the Everest “Death Zone,” where the human body struggles to adjust to the extreme altitude, according to Pemba from 8K Expeditions.
The sherpa and his client were returning to base camp after failing to reach the mountain’s 29,032-foot summit, officials said. The exact circumstances of how Dawa and his client became separated remain unclear. They were the last climbers heading down the mountain as the Everest climbing season came to a close last month.
A team from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee was collecting garbage at the base camp, dismantling the guide ropes and fixing ladders along the route leading to the summit when they spotted Dawa navigating down the Khumbu Icefall. Rescuers described that location, which lies at an elevation of 17,999 feet, as a treacherous glacier known for its towering ice blocks and deep crevasses.
Lama Kazi Sherpa, a member of the committee, said his team helped bring Dawa, who was wearing his heavy-duty parka and insulated pants, down to base camp.
Dawa was found after a rescue helicopter had conducted an extensive search of the area where he went missing, Capt. Bibek Khadka of Altitude Air Nepal, the rescue operation that flew Dawa to the hospital, told The Kathmandu Post.
