A Nepali Sherpa guide who went missing on Mount Everest six days ago has been found crawling alone to base camp after fears that he had died. Dawa Sherpa, 52, was spotted by a clearing crew on Thursday morning as he crawled down snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall.

According to Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which coordinated the search, Dawa was carried to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals, were waiting.

“We first heard that he was still alive on the local news and from a person we know who called with the news that … he is being brought down,” his wife Damu Sherpa said. Dawa was last seen descending the mountain on May 29 but did not reach base camp.

There was a delay in organizing a search team, and rescue helicopters could not find him. For Dawa’s family, hope was almost gone. His teenage daughter Mendo Lhamu Sherpa said they were already on the second day of a funeral ritual.

The team that spotted him was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which sets up ladders and ropes at the start of each climbing season and later removes equipment and cleans up. Last month, over 1,000 climbers and guides scaled Everest during the busiest season ever; at least five people have died this season.

Source: www.aljazeera.com