Survivor found near Everest base camp, family questions rescue delay
A Sherpa guide crawled out of Everest’s ice after a week alone, then his family accused his employer of waiting too long to search.
Dawa Sherpa was found crawling through snow near the Khumbu Icefall after spending nearly a week alone on Mount Everest, a survival that quickly gave way to anger over who should have moved sooner to find him. He had last been seen on May 29 near Camp III, at roughly 7,200 meters, as he descended during the final day of Nepal’s official spring climbing season.
Search teams launched a helicopter from Kathmandu on June 3 and carried out an air search from Everest Base Camp up to around Camp III, but found no trace of him. The breakthrough came on June 4 near Crampon Point, where staff from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee helped identify him as he made his way toward Base Camp. Some reports said he had survived by chewing ice and had no bottled oxygen, underscoring how close the situation came to becoming a recovery operation rather than a rescue.
He was flown to Kathmandu and treated at HAMS Hospital for frostbite, dehydration and problems in his thighs. Hospital staff said he was stable and recovering, and he was reunited with his family after arriving in the capital. But the relief did not last long. His family filed a police case against his employer, Himalayan Traverse Adventure Pvt. Ltd., and submitted a complaint to Nepal’s Department of Tourism, which oversees mountaineering operations.
The dispute has sharpened scrutiny of rescue standards on Everest, where Sherpa guides and porters often shoulder the most dangerous work while foreign climbers receive the spotlight. Dawa Sherpa’s nephew, Karma Gelje Sherpa, said the rescue would have been faster if the missing climber had been foreign. Polish climber Mariusz Chmielewski also accused Himalayan Traverse of negligence and mismanagement and called for an investigation. The accusations point to a deeper question that hangs over the mountain every season: whether the people who make summit attempts possible are protected with the same urgency when they are the ones in trouble.
The timing only deepened the criticism. Reports said two foreign climbers who had been with Dawa Sherpa reached Base Camp safely as the season closed and route ladders and ropes were being removed. Separate reports said seven climbers and guides had died in the Everest and Makalu regions this season, a reminder that the spring window remains deadly even before rescues begin to fail. For Dawa Sherpa, survival came after days of exposure, but for his family, it also exposed a system where the gap between a heroic ascent and a late rescue can decide who lives.
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