Sherpa believed dead crawls back to base camp
Samaan Lateef
Mumbai: Dawa Sherpa’s family was told that he died while descending Everest and that they should begin funeral preparations.
He was last seen at about 7,500 meters above sea level, had little food and oxygen, and the helicopter rescue team could not see him. Ladders had been removed from the most dangerous paths downwards. The deadly climbing season appears to have claimed its last victim.
But almost a week after her disappearance, the crew clearing the Everest base camp saw something remarkable.
The 52-year-old veteran guide was seen slowly crawling towards them.
The drama had begun six days earlier, when the guide, known to Nepal’s climbing community as Hillary Dawa Sherpa – after climber Edmund Hillary – climbed Everest with a Polish client in the final days of Nepal’s spring season.
On May 29, after suffering from frostbite, the client abandoned their attempt to reach the summit and hurried back to camp.
Somewhere between the kill zone and Camp 3, the Polish client continued advancing and joined another group of climbers advancing towards Camp 2.
British former Royal Marine Chris Thrall, who was in the same group as Dawa, saw him sitting down to rest. “I turned around and said, ‘Hillary, are you okay, bro?’ I said. ‘Yes, yes, okay Chris, please go, go!’ he said. Thrall said in an Instagram video.
That was the last time he saw her. Dawa found himself alone near the Yellow Band, a steep rocky section above Camp 3 at about 7,500 meters.
Other climbers, including Frozen Pole, managed to descend to Camp 2.
“It was a long summit effort. What should have been five days to get to the summit and back took 11 days, that’s how challenging the conditions were,” Thrall said.
“So, do I go back for the Sherpa, who will probably recover and heal like he has done hundreds of times before?”
A spokesman for Dawa’s employer, Himalayan Traverse, said: “They waited for Dawa until the next day but he did not show up.”
By May 31, other climbers had left the mountain. The spring season had ended and crews had removed the ladders spanning the crevasses of the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.
Dawa’s 18-year-old daughter, Mendo Lhamu, said the family had started preparing funeral rites. An emotional Thrall visited them and offered to start a GoFundMe page to help cover training costs.
He had posted a tribute to Dawa on Instagram, considering he was the sixth climber to die this year. More than 1,000 people have summited Everest this season, making it the busiest summit in history.
“The Himalaya Traverse company told us to do the funeral and that he was dead,” Mendo said.
“After hearing this, we were devastated but somehow believed that he would be alive somewhere in the mountains.”
He was remarkably right. On Thursday morning, cleanup crews at Everest’s base camp saw a blue-yellow snowsuited figure slowly crawling towards them.
“Our officials spotted him near the base camp and brought him down 100 meters. We couldn’t believe he was alive,” said Hemal Gautam, a senior official with Nepal’s tourism department. “They gave him food and first aid.”
Dawa was exhausted after six days of descending more than 2,000 meters along Everest’s Southeast Ridge route without oxygen support, crossing crevasses normally crossed by ladders and sometimes sliding on his backside.
“When I saw him, I couldn’t believe he was alive,” his daughter said. “I’m so glad to see him.”
Mendo said his father relied on his decades of experience on Everest to keep him alive.
“He told me, ‘I’ve known this mountain for years. I just kept going down. If I had given up, I wouldn’t be here today.'”
He said the thoughts of his family kept him going during the ordeal.
“He told me: ‘I didn’t think about dying. I thought about going home to my family. That’s what motivated me.’ ”
Pemba Sherpa, manager of 8K Expeditions, from which Himalayan Traverse obtained its Everest permit, said: “Dawa managed to survive for days against all odds. This is nothing short of a miracle. As far as I know, no one has ever survived alone at that altitude on Everest. It is a miracle to survive alone for six days and land safely.”
The general manager of the Himalayan Traverse, also called Dawa Sherpa, said extreme conditions on the mountain made emergency rescue efforts impossible.
“He left the team in white field conditions. You can’t see it under those conditions,” he said. “It’s easy to say a rescue operation should be launched, but sending more sherpas into this situation would be like sending them into a death trap.”
He said the company left food, oxygen, batteries, communications equipment and a tent at Camp 2 and kept part of the ladder system in place in the hope it would help him descend the Khumbu Glacier if he survived.
“The miracle is how it came out of the crack,” he said. “We believe he was trapped in a crevasse in the icefall section near Camp 1 for almost four days. We’ll know more when he gets out of the hospital.”
He said Dawa was an experienced guide who knew the route well and had survived previous accidents on the mountain.
Doctors treating Dawa in Kathmandu said his survival was extraordinary. Dawa arrived with frostbite, dehydration and multiple injuries, said Nishant Dhakal, head of emergency medicine department at HAMS Hospital.
“He has frostbite on both feet and fingers, more on the hands than the feet,” he said. “He was quite dehydrated and had some superficial injuries.”
Dhakal said Dawa’s condition was stable in intensive care. Although reports initially suggested that he survived without supplies, the doctor said he was carrying limited supplies.
“He had a little food and supplies with him, so he was able to get by,” he said.
Despite this, the doctor stated that the result was remarkable.
“For him to be able to just deal with the injuries he has right now is quite an accomplishment,” he said. “He’s pretty lucky, very lucky.”
Telegraph, London
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