Miracle on Everest: Climbers Found Alive After Six Days

Dawa Sherpa disappeared in the Death Zone of Everest after reaching the summit on May 29. Six days later, having been presumed dead, he was found alive while crawling towards Base Camp. "This is a miraculous survival," asserted Tshering Sherpa, director of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), who discovered Dawa while working in the area. Dawa, known as 'Hillary Dawa', was 52 years old and had been assigned as a cook at Camp II but joined a Polish client as a guide for the summit ascent.

"He sat down to rest for a moment with his backpack on... I turned around and asked him: 'Hillary, are you okay, brother?' He replied: 'Yes, yes, I’m fine, Chris. Please go ahead, go ahead,'" recounted Chris Thrall, a British climber who found Dawa and the Polish climber at Camp IV during their descent. Dawa assisted the Polish climber who had abandoned the summit attempt due to frostbite. That climber joined another expedition heading towards Camp II. Dawa lagged behind above Camp III and shortly after lost contact. "They waited for Dawa until the next day, but he didn’t show up," stated the general director of Himalayan Traverse. A rescue operation was not immediately activated, and he was left to fend for himself. Dawa's climbing permit was shared by Himalayan Traverse and 8K Expedition, a common practice among Nepalese agencies to share costs.

“Himalayan Traverse obtained a permit for Everest through 8K Expedition but managed the expedition entirely on their own,” said Lakpa Sherpa, general director of 8K Expeditions, stating that their company had officially closed the Everest season on May 29, as reported by Himalayan Times. Due to the lack of a rescue by Himalayan Traverse, 8K organized a helicopter search. On June 3, they searched the area with a relative of Dawa. They reached up to 7,300 meters but found no trace of the missing climber. The chances of finding him alive diminished after spending so much time at that altitude without food and supplemental oxygen.

Dawa managed to reach the Khumbu Icefall and crossed the crevasses where stairs were no longer in place to traverse them. "How Dawa crossed the deep crevasse along the icefall section without stairs is both terrifying and impressive," said Durga Rai, a rescuer from the SPCC. He saw the rescue helicopter and waved his arms, but it went unnoticed. The next morning, a waste management team from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee spotted him crawling towards Base Camp and set out to find him. Dawa showed signs of frostbite and had trouble speaking. He was transported to a hospital in Kathmandu.

“We found out he was still alive from local news and from someone we know who called to tell us they were bringing him down,” stated his wife, Damu Sherpa. His daughter revealed they were not sure it was really him until they were sent a photograph. “When we learned about the rescue, we didn’t know if that person was really our father. We asked them to send us photos and only then were we able to confirm it and feel very happy,” she told Associated Press.