A Nepalese guide abandoned his client’s Everest summit bid to rescue a Malaysian climber in a deadly mountaineering season in which at least twelve climbers have died.
Gelje Sherpa was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849m peak and planned to assist him to paraglide down.
Instead, only a few hundred meters from the summit, they came across a lone man clinging to a rope and shivering in the area known as the “death zone.”
Photo: AFP
The area above 8,000m has earned its name because of its thin air, freezing temperatures and low oxygen levels that heighten the risk of altitude sickness. It is also notorious for its difficult terrain.
“When I found him in that state, my heart did not let me leave him there,” Gelje Sherpa said.
Many other climbers had walked past the man that day, but he declined to criticize them.
“It is a place where you have to think of your survival first,” he said.
Gelje Sherpa told his client — who would have paid at least US$45,000 to attempt Everest, including a permit fee of US$11,000 — to return without a summit.
“When I decided to go down, my client did not agree at first. Of course, he was there after spending a lot of money, it must have been his dream for years and he had to find time to come here to climb,” Gelje Sherpa said.
“He got angry and said he wanted to go to the summit. I had to scold him and tell him that he has to descend because he was my responsibility and I couldn’t send him to the summit on his own. He got upset,” he said.
He told the client that he wanted to take the sick man down the mountain.
“Then he realized that by ‘rescue’ I meant that I wanted to save him. He understood and then he apologized later,” the guide said.
Gelje Sherpa, 30, fitted the ailing climber with his supplemental oxygen supply, improving some of his symptoms, but he was still unable to walk.
The rocky uneven terrain meant that Gelje Sherpa, who is about 1.6m tall and weighs 55kg, had to carry the Malaysian in some sections.
“It is a very difficult task to carry someone and bring them down from there, but some sections are very rocky, I couldn’t drag him,” he said. “If I did that, he could have broken his bones, he was already not doing well.”
Gelje Sherpa hauled the man down nearly 700m for almost six hours to Camp 4 by himself.
“I’ve been a part of many search-and-rescue missions, but this was very challenging,” he said.
Joined by another guide, the pair wrapped the climber in sleeping mats and secured him with ropes, dragging him on snowy slopes and carrying him on their backs when necessary.
Finally, they arrived at Camp 3 at 7,162m and a helicopter using a long line lifted the stricken climber down to the base camp.
Gelje Sherpa was not able to meet the Malaysian climber again, but received a message thanking him.
“He wrote me: ‘You saved my life, you are god to me,’” Gelje Sherpa said.
Nepalese guides, usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest, are considered the backbone of the climbing industry and bear huge risks to carry equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.
Gelje Sherpa’s video of the rescue last month has been liked on his Instagram more than 35,000 times and shared widely over social media, many applauding his selfless decision.
“As a guide you feel a sense of responsibility for others on the mountain and you have to make tough decisions,” said Ang Norbu Sherpa, president of Nepal National Mountain Guide Association. “What he has done is commendable.”
Nepal issued a record 478 permits for Everest to foreign climbers this season and about 600 climbers and guides reached the top.
Twelve climbers have been confirmed dead, and five more are still missing.
Gelje Sherpa has reached the world’s highest point six times and did not regret his decision to turn back that day.
“People just focus on the summit, but everyone can do that,” he said. “To bring someone from higher than 8,000m is a lot more difficult than to summit.”
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