Maha Christopher
A Nepali mountaineer who survived nearly a week stranded on Mount Everest has recounted how he stayed alive by chewing ice after running out of oxygen during a climb on the world’s highest peak.
According to AFP, 57 year old Dawa Sherpa disappeared on May 30 while descending Everest during one of the final expeditions of the spring climbing season. Believed to have died, relatives had already begun mourning rituals before news emerged that he had been found alive days later.
“I didn’t think I would be alive,” Dawa Sherpa told BBC Nepali from his hospital bed.
“I thought I would perish this way. I didn’t get lost. As the oxygen ran out, I fell behind. After the oxygen finished, I couldn’t walk.”
Stranded near Everest’s notorious “death zone,” where oxygen levels are dangerously low, Sherpa said he survived with almost no food or water.
“I didn’t eat anything for the first two days. Then I began chewing ice. It hurt my teeth. I chewed the ice hard,” he said.
The experienced climber said he later found a few chocolates and snacks in his pockets.
“I soaked them in water and had them,” he added.
Sherpa, popularly known as “Hillary” after legendary climber Edmund Hillary, also revealed that he fell into a crevasse at one point but managed to climb out and continue his descent.
“Stepping on the snow, I stood up and looked above. It felt like I could get out from there. I then looked for ropes and found one. Then I held on to it and walked. Eventually I came down,” he said.
After days of trekking through freezing conditions, he was discovered on June 4 by members of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, who were heading up the mountain to collect waste.
He was airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment of frostbite, severe dehydration and a fractured thigh.
His remarkable survival has been celebrated across Nepal’s mountaineering community, although some relatives have criticised rescue efforts and called for an investigation into how he was left behind on the mountain.
More than 1,000 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest this season, making it the busiest climbing season on record, according to preliminary figures from Nepal’s government.
