Sherpa guide missing on Mount Everest for days rescued after crawling toward base camp

(4 Jun 2026) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Kathmandu, Nepal - 4 June 2026 1. Various of rescue helicopter landing on the roof of a hospital in Kathmandu bringing Dawa Sherpa who survived on Mount Everest for a week 2. Doctors approaching the helicopter 3. Exterior of the HAMS hospital in Kathmandu 4. Family members of Dawa Sherpa at the hospital 5. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, Dawa Sherpa's daughter: "When we first heard about it we could not be sure about it if that person was indeed our father. So to be certain we asked for photos to be sent and only then we were sure and were very happy.” 6. Various of Dawa being brought out of helicopter and taken inside the hospital through an elevator, media 7. Exterior of hospital STORYLINE: A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing, and was reunited with his family who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen around May 29 descending the mountain, but he did not make it to base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above base camp, said Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was coordinating the search. He was quickly carried down to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals for him, were waiting. Though Dawa had been missing since last week, there was a delay in organizing a search team. No reasons were given for the delay, but when helicopters were finally sent to look for him, they could not find him. His family had already given up hope. Dawa’s teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they were already on the second day of a funeral ritual, which lasts for several days. “When we first heard about it (the rescue), we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father,” Mendo Lhamu said. “So to be certain we asked for photos to be sent and then only we were sure and very happy.” The team that spotted him was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which lays the ladders and ropes on the route at the start of each climbing season and then removes the equipment and cleans up the site after the climbers have left. Dawa, 52, works for a small Kathmandu-based company called Himalayan Traverse, and he was guiding a Polish climber. He comes from the town of Okhaldhunga, south of Everest. More than 1,000 climbers and their guides scaled Everest this May, which was the busiest climbing season ever on the world's highest mountain. It began late because of a massive ice block on the route just above the base camp that took about two weeks to clear. The 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) high peak was first climbed on May 29, 1953, by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. AP Video shot by Upendra Man Singh =========================================================== Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: [email protected]. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...