The climber was brought down the mountain after becoming stranded in -30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) weather.
A Malaysian mountaineer was rescued from Mount Everest’s “death zone” by Nepalese Sherpa guides and another climber.
Gelje Sherpa, age 30, was guiding a client to the summit of Mount Everest on May 18 when he noticed a Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and trembling from the cold.
The duo was able to wrap the climber in a sleeping mat and drag him over 600m (1,900ft) down from the Balcony area of the mountain to the South Col, the point between Mount Everest and Lhotse (the fourth-highest mountain in the world).
They had traveled for approximately six hours before Ngima Tashi Sherpa, an additional guide, joined the rescue effort.
“We wrapped the climber in a sleeping mat, dragged him on the snow, and took turns carrying him to camp III,” Gelje Sherpa explained.
“Saving a single life is more important than attending a monastery to pray.”
For privacy reasons, a helicopter took the climber from Camp III at 7,162 metres (23,500 ft) to base camp.
“It is nearly impossible to rescue climbers at that altitude,” said Bigyan Koirala, a representative of the tourism department.
It is a very uncommon procedure.
12 of 478 Nepalese Everest climbers with permits from March to May died, the most in eight years.
Five others remain missing.
