On the morning of 4 June 2026, a garbage clearance team from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee was working near Crampon Point on the Khumbu Glacier when they spotted a figure in a summit suit, moving slowly across the ice toward Everest Base Camp.
If you read our piece from yesterday, you know that figure was Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, a Nepali guide who had been left alone near the Yellow Band above Camp 3 on 29 May 2026, six days earlier, with no oxygen, no food, and no one coming to find him.
His wife had begun funeral rituals two days before. His daughter had asked rescuers to send photos because she could not quite believe it was him. He had waved both hands at a search helicopter the day before and watched it fly straight past. None of it stopped him.
The Key Facts
- Six days alone on Everest from 29 May to 4 June 2026, without food, water or supplemental oxygen.
- Found crawling near Crampon Point at the base of the Khumbu Icefall by an SPCC garbage clearance team on the morning of 4 June.
- Airlifted to HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu, where he arrived conscious and able to speak, suffering from severe frostbite on both hands.
- Descended alone from the Yellow Band above Camp 3, through the dismantled Khumbu Icefall route, to the glacier below Base Camp.
- Family reunited: his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals, were waiting at the hospital when he arrived.
Six Days on the Mountain
To understand what Hillary Dawa Sherpa survived, it helps to understand what the mountain looked like after he went missing.
On 29 May, the final day of the 2026 Everest season, Dawa sat down on a rock near the Yellow Band above Camp 3, told Chris Thrall he was fine, and was never seen again on the upper mountain. Thrall continued down with his frostbitten Polish client. Dawa did not follow.
By 31 May, the Icefall Doctors had dismantled the fixed rope and ladder route across the Khumbu Icefall. The mountain was officially closed for the season. The ladders laid across the crevasses, which every climber uses to cross the most dangerous section of the route, were gone.
Somehow, Hillary Dawa came through anyway.
On 3 June, 8K Expeditions sent a helicopter to search the route. A pilot, a mountain guide, and one of Dawa’s own relatives were on board. They searched between where he was last seen and Camp 1, expecting to find him there.
But by then, Dawa had already made it down to the Khumbu Icefall. He heard the helicopter. He raised both hands and waved twice. The helicopter did not see him and flew back without him.
The following morning the SPCC team found him crawling across the ice toward Base Camp.
There is one detail that made a difference. Reports suggest the SPCC may have left at least one ladder bridge in place across the Khumbu Icefall on the slim chance that Dawa was still alive and might need a way down. How exactly he navigated the rest of the dismantled route is a story only he can tell, and he was not yet well enough to tell it at the time of writing.
What the World Is Saying
The news spread through the mountaineering world in the early hours of 4 June, producing a reaction that cut through the usual measured language of climbers and expedition professionals.
The SPCC rescue team had found Hillary Dawa crawling toward Base Camp. He was alive, frostbitten, and moving under his own power.
BREAKING: Missing climber Dawa Sherpa is found alive on Mt Everest.
— Everest Today (@EverestToday) 4 June 2026
The mountaineering community, which had largely accepted that Dawa was dead, responded with disbelief followed quickly by something closer to awe.
Among those reacting were people who know better than most what surviving on that mountain actually requires.
This story ended well not because a rescue came, but because Hillary Dawa Sherpa refused to stop moving.
“The conclusion is that this story has ended well, not because Hillary Dawa was rescued, but because he saved himself.”
Angela Benavides — ExplorersWeb — Hillary Dawa Sherpa Found Alive on Everest, 4 Jun 2026
He had been sliding slowly down through the icefall. The team carried him to Gorak Shep, where the helicopter was waiting.
“He was found in a condition where he was slowly sliding down through the icefall. It is in itself an astonishing incident.”
Pemba Sherpa, executive director, 8K Expeditions — Al Jazeera, 4 Jun 2026
The Reunion at HAMS Hospital
While Hillary Dawa was making his way down the Khumbu Icefall, his family in Kathmandu had given up.
His wife, Damu Sherpa, and their daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, had already begun two days of funeral rituals by the time the rescue news reached them.
His daughter later told reporters she had asked for photos before she would believe it. “When we first heard about it, we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father,” she said. “So, to be certain, we asked for photos to be sent and then only we were sure and very happy.”
Hillary Dawa arrived at HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu by helicopter, conscious and able to speak. He was suffering from severe frostbite on both hands. His daughter told reporters: “He recognized me. He is good and speaks.”
Lakpa Sherpa, co-founder of 8K Expeditions, the company that had coordinated the aerial search, put it simply: “Dawa’s ability to self-rescue and get to safety is one of the most incredible things we’ve ever seen on Mount Everest.”
Ang Tshering Sherpa, a leading figure in Nepal’s mountaineering community, called it nothing short of a miracle, and added something that speaks to who Hillary Dawa Sherpa is: “Sherpas are built tough growing up in the mountains. If there was someone else in his place they might not have survived.”
The Questions This Story Leaves Behind
The joy of Hillary Dawa Sherpa’s survival does not erase the questions that his disappearance raised, and the mountaineering community is now asking them openly.
Outside Magazine has reported that Hillary Dawa was originally hired by Himalayan Traverse Adventures as a cook at Camp 2, not as a high-altitude guide on the upper slopes. How he came to be guiding Chris Thrall and a Polish client above 7,000 metres is not yet known. Himalayan Traverse Adventures has not responded to media requests since the story broke.
Billi Bierling, director of The Himalayan Database, noted that at the time of his disappearance Hillary Dawa was responsible for two relatively inexperienced clients on the upper mountain. “He had to look after two pretty inexperienced climbers,” she told Outside.
There have been other miraculous Himalayan survivals: Lincoln Hall on Everest in 2006, found alive a day after being left for dead at 8,700 metres; Anurag Maloo in 2023, rescued from a crevasse on Annapurna after three days missing. Each time, the survival prompted the same question: if they were alive, why was the rescue so slow to start?
This time the question is sharper, because Himalayan Traverse Adventure knew Dawa was missing from 29 May, and the insurance to initiate an aerial search was available from the first day. As we reported in our earlier piece, 8K Expeditions, the permit holder, only learned of his disappearance through the media.
Hillary Dawa Sherpa survived because he kept moving when everything said stop. He is 52 years old, from Okhaldhunga, and he is with his family.
The Juniper Fund, which supports the families of Nepali high-altitude workers, helped the family through these six days. If his story has moved you, they are worth supporting.
