June 19, 2026 / 1:18 PM EDT
/ CBS/AFP
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For three days, Nepali mountaineer Dawa Sherpa was trapped deep inside an Everest crevasse, surviving on biscuits, chocolates and chunks of ice, while back home his family had already begun mourning his death. Sherpa himself had nearly given up hope of rescue, until an avalanche thundered into the 25-foot deep ice crack, filling it with snow and creating a route to freedom."I am very happy to be back, I thought I would die there," Sherpa, 57, told AFP, giving his first full account of his dramatic self-rescue, as he recovers in an apartment in Kathmandu with his family.He had clawed his way out of the crevasse and crawled down the world's highest mountain with his frostbitten fingers, dragging his fractured leg and eventually nearly reaching Base Camp a week after he had been last seen.Back home, monks had already begun performing last rite rituals for him, as his devout Buddhist wife and daughter mourned him, presuming him dead.
Everest survivor Dawa Sherpa's daughter Mendo Lhamu Sherpa applies ointment on his frostbitten hands in Kathmandu, Nepal, on June 18, 2026.
