Sherpa found alive after week missing on Everest; family alleges rescue delay

A 57-year-old Sherpa guide missing for a week on Mount Everest was discovered alive Thursday crawling near the Khumbu Icefall, even as his family had begun funeral preparations and filed a police complaint alleging his employer delayed initiating rescue efforts.

The survival of Dawa Sherpa, who endured roughly seven days at extreme altitude after his companions descended without him, has reignited long-standing concerns about whether Nepali Sherpa guides receive the same urgency of rescue response as foreign climbers on the world's highest peak.

Dawa was found by a crew from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee — a team responsible for maintaining and removing climbing equipment along the route — near the Yellow Band at approximately 7,200 meters (23,622 feet) above sea level. He was airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu, where he is being treated for frostbite, dehydration and leg injuries, and is reported in stable condition.

Dawa had last been seen May 29 while descending Everest with British climber Chris Thrall and Polish climber Mariusz Chmielewski. By the time his companions chose to head down, Dawa had already spent considerable time in the so-called death zone. "He had been in death zone for 19 hours and at that point, a decision was made that we needed to descent through the Icefall," Thrall said.

The day of Dawa's disappearance coincided with authorities removing the climbing ladders from the icefall — a standard move marking the effective close of the climbing season. Subsequent helicopter searches turned up nothing. His family, convinced he had not survived, had begun conducting funeral rituals before word arrived that he was alive.

Dawa's family filed a police complaint against his employer, Himalayan Traverse, and lodged a separate grievance with Nepal's Department of Tourism. His nephew, Karma Gelje Sherpa, said the company's slow response was not accidental. "Action needs to be taken by the mountaineering department. It was negligence of the company that resulted in so much delay in starting rescue. If he had been a foreign climber, rescue would definitely have been organized much faster and prompt, but he happened to be an old Nepali," Karma Gelje Sherpa said.

Dawa Sherpa remains hospitalized in Kathmandu as his family awaits the outcome of their legal complaints with Nepal's mountaineering and tourism authorities.