Sherpa guide missing for a week on Mount Everest rescued while crawling to base camp
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Sherpa guide was found crawling toward his base camp. Mount Everest A week after he disappeared, he was reunited with his family, who had given up hope of his return.
Dawa Sherpa was last seen coming down the mountain around May 29, but despite being his client, he was unable to reach base camp. The couple were among the last climbers to ascend the mountain. climbing season The end has come and the route has been removed.
Dawa was located by a cleanup crew on Thursday morning, crawling down the surrounding snowy slopes. Khumbu Icefall, Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, who coordinated the search, said it was just above base camp.
He was quickly taken to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had begun funeral rites for him, were waiting.
“We first heard that he was still alive on the local news and from a person we knew who called for word that he would be taken down,” said his wife, Damu Sherpa.
Although Dawa has been missing since last week, there was a delay in organizing the search party. No reason was given for the delay, but when helicopters were finally sent to search for him they were unable to find him.
His family had now given up hope. Dawa’s teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they were on the second day of the funeral, which lasted several days.
“When we first heard about the rescue, we weren’t sure if that person was really our father,” Mendo Lhamu said. “So we asked for photos to be sent to make sure, and only then were we sure and very happy.”
The team that spotted it was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which places ladders and ropes on the route at the start of each climbing season, then removes the equipment and cleans the area after the climbers leave.
Dawa, 52, worked for a small Kathmandu-based company called Himalayan Traverse and was guiding a Polish climber. It comes from the town of Okhaldhunga, south of Everest.
More than 1,000 climbers and their guides scaled Everest this May, the busiest climbing season ever on the world’s tallest mountain. Started late due to a big event ice block on the route just above base camp, it took about two weeks to clear.
8,849 meters (29,032 feet) altitude reach climax It was first climbed on May 29, 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.
