Mountain guide makes miracle six-day crawl to safety from Mount Everest after being left to die

A Nepalese mountain guide who was left to die on Mount Everest has made a miracle six-day crawl back to base camp.

Dawa Sherpa, 57, had been left by his climbing party on the world's tallest mountain in bitter conditions early on May 30.

Stranded without food or oxygen, his wife, Damu, had given up on Dawa's return and begun to offer the last rites.

Mr Sherpa - known as "Hillary" after legendary mountaineer Edmund Hillary - was miraculously found on Thursday morning by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a Nepalese team which helps to set routes and clean waste on Everest, near base camp.

His wife said: "We were very happy to hear the news, we had given up hope. We also began puja [death prayers] yesterday."

She added he was now recovering from frostbite, but was otherwise conscious and stable.

A base camp manager said he was able to survive by eating a "small packet of biscuits" and ice, after he lost his bag and boots.

On social media, the Nepal Mount Everest hiking company said: "Dawa survived alone for nearly a week without food, water, or supplemental oxygen navigating the treacherous Khumbu Icefall (even after the fixed ladders were removed for the season).

"This is nothing short of a miracle."

Dawa, still wearing his climbing jacket, was brought by helicopter to Kathmandu, where he was quickly rushed to the hospital.

Chris Thrall, a climber and former Royal Marine, was with the mountain guide on descent after reaching the peak at around 5pm on May 29.

The climber, who has run across the Sahara and rowed the Atlantic Ocean, told GB News in March he had embarked on the expedition in order to raise awareness of the link between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Mr Thrall told The Times Mr Sherpa was as "strong as an ox" but struggled in the days nearing the summit, leaving the veteran to manage portions of the climb alone.

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On May 30, Mr Sherpa stopped as the pair begun to descend from Camp Four - about 7,950 metres above sea level.

Mr Thrall said: "He sat down for a rest with his backpack — these guys carry huge loads. And I turned and I said, 'Hillary, are you OK, brother?'

"He said, 'Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!' This is nothing new, you know. I'd go ahead, he'd go ahead."

But then, the ex-Marine was faced with a devastating choice.

Continuing his descent, Mr Thrall said he encountered a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplementary oxygen and suffering from frostbite.

"So, do I go back for Sherpa, who's probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?" Mr Thrall asked.

"Or do I help my fellow climber, who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you're never far off hypothermia up there?"

Describing it as a "full-on emergency", he helped the Polish climber return to Camp Three - a journey which normally takes two hours - but with the dangerous conditions, took 11 hours.

Mr Thrall, learning of Mr Sherpa's rescue, said: "I'm literally walking on to the plane at Kathmandu airport and I see someone say on social media: 'Don't worry, he's alive.'

"When then I'm seeing him crawl out of the wilderness like Crocodile Dundee - it's obviously just unbelievable. It's phenomenal."

Mingmar Tendi Sherpa, base camp manager of the tourism company Elite Exped, said Dawa Sherpa had attempted to climb down alone but "slipped and fell into a crevasse at around 5,600m, just below Camp One", ultimately spending two days and a half days within the crevasse.

Eventually, snow from a small avalanche filled the crevasse, allowing him to drag himself out of the hole, where he made his way towards base camp before being found by the clean-up team.

Mingmar Tendi Sherpa added: "Not everyone can survive in a crevasse... for such a long time, in such confined spaces. It is extreme cold, [with] limited oxygen, and a high risk of asphyxiation there. Survival in those conditions depends not only on physical strength but also on mental resilience."