Nepali Guide Found Alive but Injured After Going Missing on Everest Descent

Dawa Sherpa, a 52-year-old Nepali climbing guide from Okhaldhunga, was found alive Thursday morning crawling through the Khumbu Icefall just above Everest base camp after disappearing around May 29 while descending the mountain. A cleaning crew from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee spotted him and carried him to safety.

The crew gave him food and water before a rescue helicopter flew him to a hospital in Kathmandu.

Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which coordinated the search, confirmed the details of the recovery. Dawa Sherpa had been guiding a Polish climber who reached base camp safely. Dawa Sherpa works for the Kathmandu-based company Himalayan Traverse.

He was still wearing his climbing jacket when found and is being treated for frostbite and other complications but remains conscious and able to speak. His family had already begun funeral rites before learning he was alive. His teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said the family first heard the news through local reports and asked for photos to confirm the rescued man was her father.

"When we first heard about it (the rescue), we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father. So to be certain we asked for photos to be sent and then only we were sure and very happy," Mendo Lhamu Sherpa said. His wife, Damu Sherpa, said the family learned he was alive through local news reports and phone calls from friends.

"We first heard that he was still alive on the local news and from a person we know who called with the news that he is being brought down," she said. Mendo Lhamu Sherpa added that Dawa recognized her and is speaking. "He recognized me ...

Is good and speaks. We are happy," she said. Himalayan Traverse stated that Dawa survived alone for nearly a week without food, water, or supplemental oxygen while navigating the Khumbu Icefall after the fixed ladders had been removed for the season.

More than 1,000 climbers and guides reached the summit of Mount Everest in May after Nepal issued a record 494 permits. Five climbers and guides died during the season. The 8,849-meter peak was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.