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 meter (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 (-22F) or lower.