The miraculous fight for life of a Sherpa: Crawling back to life from Mount Everest’s death zone

History has it that climbing up the Mount Everest summit is a dream of every mountaineer, but what makes the highest peak in the world scary is the descent from the death zone of Mount Everest, which is believed to be the most challenging trench of the trek. Well, a miraculous thing happened when a missing Sherpa, who was believed to be dead, came back crawling to the base after spending six harrowing days. Here’s his story of self-rescue. Read on….

A living miracle
Dawa Sherpa, a highly experienced climber also known as "Hillary Dawa Sherpa," vanished on May 29 at an altitude of 7,500 meters (24,600 feet) while assisting a Polish climber to the Mount Everest summit. With oxygen levels critically low at that height, hope had completely faded until a cleaning crew spotted him moving down the mountain on Thursday.

Surviving the impossible
The heroic return from the death zone shocked everyone; speaking about it, Pemba Sherpa, executive director of 8K Expeditions, the agency that had been coordinating the search, said. "This is a true self-rescue," He further added that Dawa's ability to survive for days against all odds was nothing short of a miracle. Before his shocking reappearance, Dawa's family and friends had already accepted the worst. His wife told reporters that she had already offered last rites prayers for his soul, believing he was gone forever.

The Disappearance
The ordeal began during the descent from Camp 4, the final camp before the summit. Former British Royal Marine Chris Thrall, who was climbing with Dawa, later shared that Dawa had sat down on his backpack to rest.
When Thrall checked on him, Dawa insisted he was fine and told him to keep moving ahead. As Thrall continued down, he encountered a struggling Polish climber and helped them descend, assuming Dawa would catch up. He never did.

The search and the shocking Return
In the days that followed, 8K Expeditions launched aerial search operations, but helicopters found no trace of the guide. As time passed, he was presumed to be another casualty of what has become the busiest Everest season on record, with over 1,000 summits. So far this year, five people have died on the mountain, including three Nepali support staff. Then came Thursday's stunning turn of events. A cleaning crew noticed a figure slowly sliding and crawling through the notoriously dangerous Khumbu Icefall toward the Base Camp and was amazed to see that it was Dawa. Despite his grueling six-day survival fight, officials report that he is in overall good health and was recently filmed resting and drinking hot soup at the camp.



Image courtesy: BBC/ Getty Images