Sherpa Recounts Daring Rescue of Climber in Mount Everest’s Death Zone
HIGH-ALTITUDE HEROICS
A sherpa guide pulled off an incredible rescue near the summit of Mount Everest, saving a Malaysian climber from near-certain death. Gelje Sherpa, the guide, found the climber on the brink of death, hanging from a rope in the mountain’s infamous death zone—an area approaching the summit made especially lethal by low oxygen and frigid temperatures. “No one was helping him, no friends, no oxygen, no sherpas with him, no guides, so this is quite dangerous for him,” Gelje told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The experienced guide had to wrap the climber for warmth, load him onto his back and carry him down to the mountain’s base camp. For the first hours, Gelje carried the wayward alpinist on his own, before another guide arrived to tag in. The climber was close to becoming another fatality in a deadly climbing season on Everest that has already claimed the lives of 12 mountaineers.