A Sherpa guide everyone thought was dead on Mount Everest has been found alive after surviving nearly a week alone in the frighteningly and unsubtly named “death zone,” without food or bottled oxygen.
CNN reports that 52-year-old Hillary Dawa Sherpa disappeared on May 29 above Camp 3, more than 7,000 meters up the mountain, while descending from a summit attempt with clients. He became separated from his team during what had already been a punishing 11-day climb. The odds were stacked against him, as he had no radio contact and the ladders that are usually placed around the ascent had been dismantled since prime climbing season was coming to an end. The situation was so dire that his family had already begun prepping his funeral rites.
The death zone begins above 8000 meters up the ascent. It’s when the human body starts to fall apart, thanks to a combination of hypoxia, fluid buildup in the lungs, and hypothermia, among other nasty side effects of climbing to the peak of the biggest mountain on Earth.
The Everest Sherpa Describes His Unbelievable Survival Story
Six days after Hillary Dawa Sherpa’s initial disappearance, members of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee spotted him crawling through the icefall toward Base Camp. He was given food and water and airlifted to Kathmandu’s HAMS Hospital for treatment. Doctors said he was conscious and speaking, though frostbitten and exhausted.
Dawa later explained that he’d fallen into a crevasse near Camp 1 and spent two days trapped before climbing out and beginning a slow descent. Mountaineering officials called it a “miracle” and cited it as the rare example of true self-rescue at that altitude. The fact that he was able to survive nearly a full week with oxygen levels as low as they were is a miracle in itself.
This has been Everest’s busiest season on record, with more than 1000 summits and 274 climbers reaching the top in a single day. Certainly doesn’t seem that special anymore. More of a tourist attraction, really. That gut feeling is supported by a series of viral images spread by climbers showing a long line of them standing in the death zone, fueling criticism of overcrowding and corner-cutting to try to cram as many people into the ascent as possible. Five people died this season, including three Nepalis.
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