A Nepali Sherpa guide missing for six days on Mount Everest was found alive, crawling alone toward base camp, dispelling fears that he had perished.
According to Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions – the company coordinating the search – Dawa Sherpa was spotted by a cleanup team early Thursday morning (June 4, 2026) crawling down the snow slopes around the Khumbu Icefall. The 52-year-old was brought to a safe area, given food and water, and later airlifted by rescue helicopter to HAMS Hospital in the capital, Kathmandu. There, his wife and daughter – who had begun funeral rites – were waiting to receive him.
“First we heard he was still alive from a local news report and from an acquaintance who called to say … he was being brought down,” his wife, Damu Sherpa, said.
Dawa was last seen around May 29 while descending the mountain. He never made it to base camp, although his client – a Polish climber – returned safely. Organizing a search team was delayed, and when a rescue helicopter was finally dispatched, they could not find him.
For Dawa’s family, hope of seeing him again had almost faded. His teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said the family was on the second day of a multi-day funeral ceremony. “When we first heard the news, we weren’t sure if it was really our father,” Mendo Lhamu said. “So, to be certain, we asked for photos to be sent, and only then did we believe and were overjoyed.”
The team that found him belongs to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, the body responsible for placing ladders and ropes on the route each climbing season and later removing equipment and cleaning up as climbers depart. Last month, more than 1,000 climbers and their guides conquered Everest during the busiest climbing season ever on the world’s highest peak. At least five people died this season.
