Mount Everest climber recalls moment he lost guide who survived alone for six days
A former British soldier, Chris Thrall, has recounted the moment he became separated from a Nepali mountain guide as they were descending Mount Everest.
Dawa Sherpa was found alive on Thursday, six days after he was last seen above Camp 3 – at around 7,500m (24,600ft). Climber Thrall said that at first, it was impossible to believe Sherpa had survived against the odds.
Thrall told BBC’s Newshour: “It’s kind of crazy one minute to be fighting back tears with his daughter, and then the next minute to see him crawling into town. It’s absolutely amazing, beyond words”.
Thrall had last seen Dawa Sherpa sitting on his backpack to have a short rest as they made their way back towards base camp after arduous days of climbing.
Thrall passed the guide, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after famed mountaineer Edmund Hillary.
He continued to descend alone for what he estimated to be about 50-100m before he came across another member of their group, a “Polish climber with no oxygen, battling fairly severe frostbite”.
“So immediately my attention turned to the weakest member of the trio. And that was that,” he told Newshour.
“As I look back up the mountain, as I helped this guy descend, Hillary Dawa didn’t appear to have moved, and certainly wasn’t descending, because we would have seen his head torch.”
Dawa Sherpa was last seen above Camp 3, at around 7,500m.
For the next six days there was no sign of him. His wife had started to offer last rite prayers for his soul, she told AFP.
As hopes of his survival faded, Dawa Sherpa had slowly been making his way back, and on Thursday he was spotted by a cleaning crew as he slid slowly down the world’s tallest mountain.
When Thrall first saw comments on social media saying Dawa Sherpa had been found alive, he said he thought it was “spam”.
“It really does defy the odds. I met the family yesterday to offer my utmost condolences,” he told Newshour.
He added he was “very happy for Hillary, looking forward to speaking to him”.
Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions which was overseeing search efforts, called it a “true self-rescue”.
“Dawa managed to survive against all odds for days. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” he said.
Dawa Sherpa is “awake and undergoing treatment”, according to Nishant Dhakal, a doctor in the intensive care unit of Kathmandu’s HAMS Hospital.
“We are managing his frostbites, cold injuries, hydration and trauma. He is being further evaluated and will be in our ICU.”
“He recognised me … is good and speaks,” his daughter Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa told Reuters news agency after visiting him. “We are happy.”
More than 1,000 have summited Everest summit this season, making it the busiest on record. Five people have died, according to AFP.
