PEAK MIRACLE

Everest Guide Crawls to Survival in ‘Miracle’ Self-Rescue

A cleanup crew spotted him slowly sliding down toward Base Camp, six days after he went missing.

A veteran Everest guide who had been feared dead for nearly a week has been found alive, crawling down the mountain alone after surviving at extreme altitude in what rescuers are calling a miracle. Dawa Sherpa—also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa, after the legendary mountaineer Edmund Hillary—was last seen above Camp 3, at around 24,600 feet, while descending after a successful summit. Six days later, a cleaning crew spotted him sliding slowly through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall toward Base Camp, alive, with frostbite on his hands but otherwise in surprisingly good shape. “Dawa managed to survive against all odds for days. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions, which had been overseeing the search. “This is a true self-rescue.” “As far as I know, no one has survived alone at that altitude on Everest so far,” Pemba Sherpa added. “I think he must have lived inside the tents to keep himself safe.” Dawa, 52, is now awake and being treated in an intensive care unit in Kathmandu. “He recognized me, is good and speaks,” his daughter Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa told Reuters. “We are happy.” Before he was found, his wife had already offered last rites.