A Nepali sherpa is earning praise for rescuing a Malaysian climber from Mount Everest’s ‘death zone’, a name given to the highest part of the peak, above 26,247 feet (8,000 meters).
On Thursday, Gelje shared on social media videos and pictures of the heroic incident where he carried a climber on his back for almost six hours and led him to a camp where he received necessary medical treatment.
The footage shows Gelje's immense strength and bravery as he ensured the stranded climber's safety.
“You may all be wondering where is the summit photo? Unfortunately no summit yet. At the Balcony during our summit push around 8,300m I saw someone in danger. A man who needed rescuing and no one else was helping. I made the decision to cancel our clients summit push so that I could bring him down to safety before he died up there alone."
"I carried him myself all the way down to Camp 4 where a rescue team helped from then on. I will be back up the mountain soon after regaining energy from a huge task but I am so happy to say he is alive and recovering in hospital,” Gelje captioned the post.
Nepali tourism official Bigyan Koirala told Indian media that it was a "very rare operation" and "almost impossible to rescue climbers at that altitude."