Sources confirm that a guide has been plucked from the death zone of Mount Everest after six harrowing nights stranded above 8,000 metres. The ordeal, which unfolded in the thin air of the world’s highest peak, has drawn rare praise from a UK mountaineering community more accustomed to counting the dead than celebrating the saved.
The climber, identified by rescue officials as a 34-year-old Nepali guide working for a British expedition firm, was found alive but severely frostbitten in a crevasse near the South Col. He had been separated from his team during a sudden storm on 12 May and was presumed dead by all but a handful of seasoned mountaineers who refused to abandon the search.
“He was in a very bad way,” a source close to the rescue operation told this reporter. “Hypothermia, frostbite to both hands and feet, and severe dehydration. But he was conscious. That’s a miracle at that altitude.”
The rescue itself was a feat of sheer will. A team of six Sherpas and two Western guides, all volunteering, climbed through the night with bottled oxygen and heated fluids. They located the guide at Camp 4, where he had crawled after his oxygen ran out. The descent took 14 hours, each step a negotiation with death.
“This isn’t the sort of thing that happens on Everest,” said a veteran British climber who has summited the peak five times. “Usually, you’re left to die. There’s an unwritten rule up there: if you can’t walk, you don’t come home. But this time, they broke the rules. And it worked.”
The UK mountaineering community, a tight-lipped fraternity often wary of media scrutiny, has been unusually vocal. “We are immensely proud of the rescue team,” read a statement from the British Mountaineering Council. “Their bravery and determination exemplify the best of our sport.”
But behind the official praise lies a darker story. Documents obtained by this reporter suggest that the guide’s employer, a prominent UK-based adventure company, initially refused to authorise a rescue operation citing “excessive risk and cost.” The team that saved him did so without official approval, relying on private donations and the goodwill of fellow climbers.
“The company just wanted to move on,” said a source within the expedition. “They were already planning the next trip, taking bookings. They didn’t want the paperwork of a dead guide. But the living one? That was a liability.”
The guide’s identity has not been released, but sources confirm he is expected to lose several fingers and toes. He is currently receiving treatment in Kathmandu, where doctors have described his survival as “extraordinary.”
The story has reignited debate about the ethics of commercial expeditions on Everest, where guides are often underpaid, underinsured, and pressured to push on regardless of conditions. “This guide is lucky,” said a former expedition leader who now works as an advocate for porter rights. “But the system that put him up there is still broken. He was left for dead because it was cheaper than saving him.”
The UK company at the centre of the controversy has not responded to repeated requests for comment. But the mountaineering community, at least for now, is choosing to focus on the rescue itself. “We saved one,” the veteran climber said. “That’s one more than usual. Let’s see if they learn anything.”
