A Nepali mountaineer who spent six days dragging himself off Mount Everest after being abandoned has been moved out of intensive care as he slowly recovers, his family said on Tuesday.
His improbable survival has sparked celebration among fellow climbers, but also anger from family members and the mountaineering community over the failure to locate him sooner.
Dawa Sherpa, 57, disappeared in brutal conditions on the upper slopes of the world’s tallest mountain on May 30 during one of the final climbs of the spring season.
He was found on Thursday morning, crawling towards Base Camp, and airlifted to Kathmandu, where doctors are treating him for frostbite, severe dehydration and a fractured thigh bone.
“He has been shifted from the ICU (intensive care unit) to the ward and treatment is ongoing — he can speak a little and is eating,” his relative Nuru Sherpa told AFP.
“Doctors are observing his hands and legs for improvement.”
Left stranded in freezing temperatures near Everest’s “death zone”, where oxygen levels are critically low, Dawa Sherpa said he survived for days with almost no food or water.
“I thought I would perish this way. I didn’t get lost. As the oxygen ran out, I fell behind. After the oxygen finished, I couldn’t walk,” he told BBC Nepali on Friday from his hospital bed.
“I didn’t eat anything for the first two days. Then I began chewing ice. It hurt my teeth. I chewed the ice hard,” he said.
He survived on a few chocolates and snacks he had in his pockets.
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