Dawa Sherpa, 52, was returning with a European climber when he went missing between Camp III and Camp IV, on May 29. He returned alive on June 4. His family had begun preparing for his last rites ceremony. The search party had lost hope, believing he was dead. Six days had passed since Dawa Sherpa, a mountaineer and Nepali climbing guide, had gone missing on the upper slopes of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, in bitter conditions.Dawa Sherpa did not eat or drink anything for 6 days and returned home safely after being stuck in Mount Everest. (X/chris.thrall)All hope was lost until a miracle happened. A team of cleaners from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which clears the waste left behind on the mountain, spotted a man walking down near the base camp. The cleaners rushed to bring him to the camp, from where he was taken by helicopter to a hospital on a trolley.Dawa Sherpa, 52, was returning with a European climber when he went missing between Camp III and Camp IV.Mountaineer Dawa Sherpa is being carried by medics and rescuers upon his arrival at the HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu on June 4. (AFP)"He was found by a team of SPCC this morning close to the base camp -- he was crawling down," Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts, told AFP.Daughter, at first, did not believe her father had come backDawa’s family said he was doing well and undergoing treatment for frostbite and other complications, according to Reuters.“He recognised me … is good and speaks,” said Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa, the guide’s daughter. “We are happy.”Also Read | ‘9 hours, 55 minutes’: US climber, a cancer survivor, summits Mt Everest in record time"Dawa survived alone for nearly a week without food, water, or supplemental oxygen navigating the treacherous Khumbu Icefall (even after the fixed ladders were removed for the season)," the Nepal Mount Everest hiking company said in a social media post. "This is nothing short of a miracle."Damu Sherpa (L), wife of mountaineer Dawa Sherpa is being consoled by her relative at the HAMS Hospital in Kathmandu on June 4, 2026. (AFP)Dawa Sherpa's wife, Damu Sherpa, said her family was overjoyed."We were very happy to hear the news, we had given up hope," she said. "We also began puja (last rite prayers) yesterday."Also Read | 3 Indians among 274 to summit Mt Everest, set new recordHis daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they almost did not believe it when they received a telephone call informing them that he had been found."At first we were not sure if it was him -- but they sent us photos to confirm, and then I was happy," she said.How was he left behind?Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine who climbed Everest this season along with 1,000 others, was the climber Dawa Sherpa was assisting.Thrall posted a video giving a detailed account of what happened on May 29 at around 5 pm, when the two started descending from Camp Four.In a video message posted on Wednesday on Instagram, he mourned Sherpa's presumed death. Like others, he too believed he would never return."He sat down for a rest with his backpack, these guys carry huge loads," he said."And I turned and I said, 'Hillary, are you okay, brother?' He said, 'Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!' This is nothing new, you know, I'd go ahead, he'd go ahead."More than 1,000 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest this season, but Dawa Sherpa nearly became one of the fatalities reported on the world's highest peak after he went missing during his descent. This is a representational image. (AFP)Sherpa was famously called ‘Hillary’ among climbers and friends, named after the great Edmund Hillary, among the firsts to reach the Summit of Everest.As Thrall descended, he came across a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplementary oxygen and suffering frostbite."It had been a long summit push. What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that's how challenging the conditions were," said Thrall."So, do I go back for Sherpa, who's probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?""Or do I help my fellow climber, who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you're never far off hypothermia up there?"Thrall described the tough conditions, explaining how he shared his oxygen cylinder with the Polish climber as they descended. The journey to Camp Three took 11 hours; under normal circumstances, it would have taken just two."I realised we had a really serious situation," he said.Search teams set out to find Dawa Sherpa, but he was not seen again until Thursday morning, having made his way down on his own.(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)