Mount Everest climber stranded for a week without food or oxygen rescued crawling back to Base Camp alone
A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest a week ago without food or oxygen has been found alive, having crawled alone almost all the way back to Base Camp.
Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, was discovered Thursday morning after vanishing from the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain in the final hours of the 2026 climbing season.
Dawa, a husband and father, had been returning with a Polish climber after failing to reach the 8,849 metre summit when he went missing between Camp III and Camp IV.
The latter sits at an altitude of around 8,000 metres and is termed ‘the death zone’, with oxygen levels too low to sustain human life for long.
The veteran climber was found by an organising team “close to the base camp … crawling down” with “some frostbite” but otherwise in good health, Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, overseeing the rescue efforts, told the AFP news agency.
The lost climber’s wife said the family were “very happy” to learn of his return, adding that they had already begun last rite prayers for his soul.
Dawa, still in a climbing jacket, was rushed from the helipad to hospital on a trolley. His family said he was doing well and undergoing treatment for frostbite and other complications.
“He recognised me … is good and speaks,” said Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa, the guide’s daughter. “We are happy.”
Family members told Outside that Dawa – who is named after famed mountaineer Edmund Hillary – had spent several years working and guiding on Everest. They said the seasonal work was a crucial source of income for his wife and teenage daughter.
Pasang Dawa Sherpa, a Nepalese climber, shared pictures of the returning guide on Facebook, still equipped with a summit suit while eating and resting, with apparent frostbite on his hands.
According to The Himalayan Times, the guide went seven days without food, bottled oxygen or a rescue team. They were among the last climbers on Everest this season, which ended at the end of last month.
Durga Rai, an SPCC rescuer, told The Himalayan Times: “How Dawa crossed the deep crevasse along the icefall section with no ladders is both scary and amazing.”
Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he was the last person to see Dawa, having successfully reached the summit of the mountain with him on 29 May.
In a tribute to Dawa on Wednesday, then presumed dead, Thrall described him as an “absolute gentle giant of a man and a true ‘tiger of the mountains’”.
