A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was feared dead has been found alive after crawling alone almost to Base Camp, officials said on Thursday.
His wife had even begun to offer last rite prayers for his soul, she said at the hospital in the capital Kathmandu, where he is recovering from “some frostbite”.
Mountaineer Dawa Sherpa – who is in his 50s, and is better known as “Hillary” after famed climber Edmund Hillary due to his experience – vanished on the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain in bitter conditions, early on May 30.
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He was found on Thursday morning close to Base Camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team that helps set routes on Everest and clean up waste left behind.
“He was crawling down,” Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts, said.
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A helicopter flew him to Kathmandu, where he was carried out on a stretcher.