A Sherpa mountain guide who went missing on Mount Everest was discovered making his way back to base camp a week after his disappearance. Dawa Sherpa, 52, disappeared on May 29 while descending the mountain with a client. They were among the final climbers on the mountain as the season ended.
Nicknamed Hillary Dawa Sherpa after renowned mountaineer Edmund Hillary, he was found by a cleaning crew above base camp, crawling down the snowy slopes. Initially, his family had given up hope of his survival and had started a funeral ritual. However, he was found with frostbite on his hands but in overall good health, slowly descending towards safety near the Khumbu Icefall.
Pemba Sherpa from 8K Expeditions, which led the search, reported that Dawa was given immediate care at the camp before being airlifted to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu. His wife, Damu Sherpa, expressed their initial disbelief at the news of his survival, which was confirmed when they received photos of him being rescued.
Dawa, employed by a small Kathmandu-based company named Himalayan Traverse, was guiding a Polish climber when he vanished. He was last seen near Yellow Band above Camp 3 at 7,200 meters, and miraculously managed to travel around 1,900 meters back to safety at the 5,300-meter base camp.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, a respected figure in Nepal’s mountaineering community, hailed Dawa’s survival as a miracle, emphasizing the toughness of Sherpas raised in mountainous regions. Dawa, hailing from Okhaldhunga, south of Everest, endured harsh conditions on the mountains for days before being rescued, a feat deemed extraordinary by his peers.
