Missing Sherpa guide found alive on Everest after funeral rites had begun

A Nepali Sherpa guide who was believed to have died on Mount Everest has been found crawling to base camp a week after going missing – and after his funeral rites had begun.

Hillary Dawa Sherpa, named after the famous climber Edmund Hillary, was last seen on 29 May but did not reach base camp with other climbing groups.

A fellow climber said he was last seen around the “death zone” region of the world’s highest mountain, where the pressure is so low that oxygen levels are insufficient for sustained human survival.

A helicopter rescue team had failed to find the 52-year-old, but Dawa was located on Thursday morning, according to Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which coordinated the search. A climbing support team found him as he crawled down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu icefall, just above base camp, said Pemba Sherpa.

He had frostbite on his hands but appeared to be in good health, and was quickly carried down to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to a hospital in Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals, were waiting.

“We first heard that he was still alive on the local news,” said his wife, Damu Sherpa.

Dawa’s teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they were on the second day of a funeral ritual, which traditionally lasts for several days.

“When we first heard about it [the rescue], we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father,” Mendo Lhamu said. “So to be certain we asked for photos to be sent and then only we were sure and very happy.”

Dawa was last seen at spot called Yellow Band above camp 3, which is located at 7,200 meters (23,622ft). The base camp is at 5,300 meters.

He works for a small Kathmandu-based company called Himalayan Traverse, and was guiding a Polish climber. He comes from the town of Okhaldhunga, south of Everest.

Earlier this week, Chris Thrall, a British climber and former Royal Marine, posted a video tribute to Dawa Sherpa, believing he had died on the mountain. Thrall said Dawa had sat down for a rest on the way down.

“I turned and I said: ‘Hillary, are you OK, brother?’ He said: ‘Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!’” Thrall said, adding that Dawa had a satellite phone and a radio but that he was not sure if they were functioning.

Thrall said he had continued and found Dawa’s Polish client “with no oxygen and frostbite” and decided to help him down, believing the experienced Nepali guide would make his own way down. “The weather was so changeable and so bitter,” said Thrall. “Tragic. Unfortunate. But it’s the high mountains. That’s it.”

Nepal’s mountaineering community has hailed Dawa’s survival as miraculous.