Everest Miracle: Sherpa Survives 6 Days on Ice & Chocolate

A Nepali climbing guide has defied all odds, miraculously surviving almost a week stranded on the treacherous slopes of Mount Everest by “chewing ice”. Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, was spotted crawling back to Base Camp on Thursday, six days after he disappeared, leaving his family to mourn what they thought was an inevitable loss.

Dawa was discovered by a cleaning crew near the perilous Khumbu Icefall, just above Base Camp. A rescue helicopter swiftly transported him to Hams Hospital in Kathmandu, where he was reunited with his astonished family. They had already begun making funeral arrangements, having given up all hope of his return. Dawa is now receiving treatment for severe frostbite, dehydration, and a fractured bone, a testament to his harrowing ordeal.

“I didn’t think I would be alive,” Dawa recounted to BBC Nepali. “I thought I would perish this way.” The last person to see Dawa was former British soldier Chris Thrall on May 29. Thrall had descended briefly to search for a Polish national in his expedition group, who was battling severe frostbite and a lack of oxygen. When Thrall looked back, Dawa was no longer behind him. Dawa himself ran into trouble when his own oxygen supply ran out.

“I couldn’t walk,” he explained. “I didn’t eat anything for the first two days. Then I began chewing ice. It hurt my teeth. I chewed the ice hard.” A glimmer of hope appeared when he discovered chocolates in his pockets, providing just enough energy to begin his descent. However, his journey was far from over. During his perilous trek down, Dawa fell into a deep crevasse, trapped for two and a half days. In a bizarre twist of fate, he was ultimately saved by an avalanche, which dumped enough snow into the crevasse, allowing him to climb out. His incredible tale of survival serves as a powerful reminder of both the unforgiving nature of Everest and the indomitable spirit of human endurance.

#Everest #SurvivalStory #HillaryDawaSherpa