A Sherpa mountain guide who had gone missing was discovered crawling back to base camp a week after his disappearance on Mount Everest. Dawa Sherpa, aged 52, vanished on May 29 while descending the mountain. He was found by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning crawling down the snowy slopes just above the base camp.

Despite his family giving up hope of seeing him alive again and starting funeral rituals, Dawa was found with frostbite on his hands but in relatively good health as he descended towards safety near the Khumbu Icefall. Pemba Sherpa from 8K Expeditions, who led the search, reported that Dawa was provided with food and water at the camp before being flown to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu to reunite with his family.

Dawa, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa, was guiding a Polish climber when he went missing. He had last been seen at the Yellow Band above Camp 3, located at 7,200 meters, with the base camp situated at 5,300 meters. His miraculous survival over the treacherous terrain has garnered admiration from Nepal’s mountaineering community, with Ang Tshering Sherpa emphasizing the resilience of Sherpas in such extreme conditions.

Ang Tshering Sherpa hailed Dawa’s survival as a remarkable feat, attributing it to the toughness ingrained in Sherpas from their upbringing in the mountains. He emphasized that few others could have endured similar circumstances.