Sherpa Climber Found Alive on Everest Six Days After Disappearance, Called a ‘Miracle’

In what rescuers are calling a near‑impossible survival story, a Nepali climbing guide believed to have perished on Mount Everest was found crawling down the Khumbu Icefall toward Base Camp — six full days after he was last seen alive at an altitude where the air holds barely enough oxygen to sustain life.

Dawa Sherpa, 52, had radioed his team after summiting the world’s tallest peak and was last spotted above Camp 3 at roughly 7,500 meters (24,600 feet). With limited oxygen, plummeting temperatures, and no sign of movement, fellow climbers and family members had all but given up hope. His wife, according to the AFP news agency, had already recited last rites for his soul.

Then, on Thursday, a cleanup crew working the lower slopes saw a figure moving slowly down the glacier. It was Dawa — his hands blackened by frostbite, his body exhausted, but his mind still sharp enough to recognize rescuers. He had survived alone at altitude for nearly a week, subsisting on melted snow and, his rescuers believe, taking shelter in abandoned tents along the route.

“Dawa managed to survive against all odds for days. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” said Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions, which coordinated search efforts. “No one survives alone at that altitude for so long. This is a true self‑rescue.”

Pemba Sherpa said Dawa was “slowly sliding through” the Khumbu Icefall when found — a notoriously unstable section of the mountain that has claimed many lives. He was airlifted to safety and is now stable, according to Dr. Nishant Dhakal at HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu. His daughter Mhendo Lhamo told Reuters her father is “awake, speaking, and recognizes me. We are happy.”

This year’s Everest season has been the busiest on record, with more than 1,000 climbers reaching the summit. But it has also been deadly: at least five people have died during the season, three of them Nepalis involved in pre‑monsoon preparations. The mountain has seen a surge in traffic, raising questions about safety protocols and the limits of high‑altitude survival.

Dawa Sherpa — also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after Sir Edmund Hillary — disappeared after a grueling summit push. Fellow climber and former British Royal Marine Chris Thrall recalled Dawa telling him to “go, go” as they descended from Camp 4. Thrall went ahead to help a struggling Polish climber, assuming Dawa would catch up as he had hundreds of times before. But Dawa never did — until six days later.

“It had been a long summit push,” Thrall later said on Instagram, where he had posted a tribute thinking Dawa had died. “What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days. That’s how challenging the conditions were.”

One relative, Kung Sherpa, had expressed frustration with the initial pace of the search in an interview with Outside magazine. The eventual rescue effort was launched by 8K Expeditions, which located Dawa and airlifted him to safety — a rare happy ending on a mountain where such disappearances typically end in tragedy.