KATHMANDU—A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a “very rare” high altitude rescue, a government official said on Wednesday.
Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849 metre (29,032 feet) Everest summit on May 18 when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area called the “death zone,” where temperatures can dip to minus 30 degrees Celsius (86F) or lower.
Gelje hauled the climber 600 metres (1,900 feet) down from the Balcony area to the South Col, over a period of about six hours, where Nima Tahi Sherpa, another guide, joined the rescue….