In what climbers are calling a miracle, a 52-year-old Sherpa guide who was presumed dead on Mount Everest after he vanished during descent on May 29 was found alive after six days near Base Camp on Thursday morning.Dawa ‘Hillary’ Sherpa — who earned the moniker for his mountaineering expertise – covered more than 12km from Yellow Band (25,000ft) to Crampon Point (17,000ft) in difficult weather without food, water or supplemental oxygen, crossing the treacherous Khumbu icefall after the climbing season had ended and ropes and ladders on the route had been removed.His family, having lost hope, was reading prayers for his last rites when they were told Dawa had survived, scavenging leftover tents for scraps of food, water and discarded bottled oxygen.Dawa was descending after summiting Everest at 5pm on May 28 with a group that included British climber Chris Thrall, a former Royal Marine, and a Polish climber when he was last seen near Yellow Band on May 29. Reports said the Polish climber reached Base Camp, but Dawa didn’t.Dawa hailed ‘tiger of the mountains’ for ‘surviving on ice, one packet of biscuits’Thrall even “paid tribute” to Dawa on social media, saying, “RIP… mero dai” (Rest in peace, my elder brother). In the 13-minute video posted on Instagram Wednesday, Thrall said, “Dawa sat down for a rest with his backpack. These guys carry huge loads…” He added, that he checked on Dawa before moving on. “I turned to him and said, ‘Hillary, are you OK brother?’ He said, ‘Yes, yes, I’m fine, Chris. Please go.’”Thrall said that as he descended, he saw a Polish climber from his team who “had frostbite and had run out of supplemental oxygen”. He said, “I come from the British Royal Marines — we are taught to never leave anyone behind… I have only half a tank of oxygen left. Do I take the Polish climber who has frostbite, or go back for the Sherpa who is probably going to rock up and be fine like he has a hundred times before?” His account of events has not been verified.
Thrall said he shared oxygen with the Polish climber and descended with him, and later reported Dawa missing after reaching lower camps. After criticism mounted online over why he did not return for Dawa, Thrall said he was tired of being called a “murderer”. Once Dawa was found alive, Thrall said he was “elated and so happy for him and his wonderful family”.The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) cleanup team that had been removing route equipment spotted Dawa near Crampon Point and brought him down before he was flown to a Kathmandu hospital with frostbite and other complications. “He is in intensive care, but out of danger,” a doctor at HAMS Hospital, Kathmandu said.For climbers and guides, the part that stood out was not only that Dawa survived nearly six days without supplies, but that he moved through active crevasses and broken terrain. Nima Tenzing Sherpa, a high-altitude guide, told TOI, “Two days in a deep crevasse below Camp I after a full week in the death zone? Surviving on ice and one packet of biscuits at that altitude is an unbelievable feat of mental strength. He is a tiger of the mountains.”Several guides and climbers have raised questions about the delay in finding Dawa. Mingma C Sherpa, an independent high-altitude porter, told TOI climbers often made “dangerous assumptions” about Sherpas because of their experience. “Foreign climbers assume we are invincible — a dangerous mindset. When a client is told by a guide to move ahead so they can rest, they trust that expertise. Thrall made a textbook survival choice under brutal conditions.”