No one expected high-altitude guide Hillary Dawa Sherpa to be found alive after he went missing on May 29 above Everest Camp 3, at over 7,300 meters altitude, in the death zone. The best and surprising news arrived this morning with the confirmation that the Nepalese high-altitude guide “was found crawling towards base camp by a team from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC),” Pemba Sherpa of 8K, the company that had started his search this week, confirmed to AFP. The veteran Sherpa, over 50 years old, has been transferred to a hospital in Kathmandu with frostbite, but his life is not feared to be in danger.
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Hillary Dawa Sherpa, another high-altitude guide, and two clients reportedly reached the summit on Thursday 28, a deadline date as the SPCC had already announced that around that time they would begin dismantling the ladders and fixed ropes on the Khumbu Glacier, the last obstacle to returning to base camp, at about 5,350 meters altitude. News published on social media and in Nepalese media, which Hillary Dawa will have to confirm in the coming days, indicates that he stayed behind while his companions descended to the lower camps. Nothing more was known about Dawa since the 29th, and yesterday he was already presumed dead.
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The miracle emerged this morning when the aforementioned SPCC team spotted him crawling towards base camp. Pemba Sherpa, from 8K, told AFP that doctors have confirmed to him that, apart from frostbite, “he appears to be in good condition.”
We had lost all hope and had even started funeral preparations yesterday, Wednesday
Damu Sherpa
Wife of Hillary Dawa Sherpa
“We had lost all hope and had even started funeral preparations yesterday, Wednesday,” Damu Sherpa, Hillary Dawa’s wife, explained to AFP.
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Hillary Dawa reached the summit with British climber Chris Thrall, and according to Thrall, they had planned to complete the ascent and descent in five days, but it took them eleven. Thrall said he lost sight of Hillary Dawa descending from Camp 4, at 7,950 meters, to Camp 3, after Dawa sat down to rest and told him: “Go, go.” This week, the British mountaineer also presumed him dead, according to his comments on social media.
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The good news coincides with the debate about whether enough had been done to rescue Hillary, to organize a group of people to go to his aid.
The 2026 Everest season has ended with another record: more than 1,000 people, including clients and Sherpas, have reached the summit, 274 of whom on a single day, May 21.
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