An Australian who was stranded unconscious on Mount Everest has cheated death after an extraordinary rescue mission involving a yak.
Gilian Lee's against-the-odds survival comes amid a horror climbing season, with 11 mountaineers reported dead or missing so far this northern spring.
Few details have emerged since news broke of the his miraculous rescue, which involved a yak and a team of Tibetan alpine specialists who were on the mountain doing repair work.
The team stumbled across Mr Lee at an altitude of 7500 metres on the northern slopes of the mountain on Wednesday last week.
The day before, Mr Lee posted on Twitter that he'd had a "rough night" at Camp One, at an elevation of around 6000m, due to a persistent chest infection.
The team used the yak to drag him to the safety of base camp. The Canberra man was reportedly taken to a hospital in Kathmandu where his condition has improved, The China Daily has reported.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has refused to provide any other details about his dramatic survival story, citing privacy reasons.
The heavy death toll from this year's climbing season has put the issue of overcrowding on the iconic mountain back in the spotlight.
Climbers have shared photos taken just below the summit, showing them queued up in a tight column, waiting for their moment to push for the summit.
Canadian adventurer and filmmaker Elia Saikaly says he's unlikely to ever return after the chaos he witnessed as he made the summit last Thursday.
Mr Saikaly returned from his eighth Everest expedition with a sense of abhorrence, saying he'd watched people clamber over dead bodies, only to die themselves.
"I cannot believe what I saw up there. Death. Carnage. Chaos. Lineups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4," he posted on social media after making it safely back to base camp.
"People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies."
He later told the Ottawa Citizen he was unlikely to make another assault on the summit.
"It's a really messed up thing to be in a position where you have to walk over a dead body," he said by phone from Kathmandu.
"Do I think I'll go back? I don't think so. Not after this season. It was pretty horrific."
American doctor Ed Dohring, who made the summit a few days ago, told The New York Times it was "like a zoo" up there, with climbers jostling to take selfies and lined up chest to chest.
"It was scary," he said, describing how he'd had to step around the body of a woman who'd just died.
Nepal's tourism authority has responded to the cluster of deaths by saying overcrowding is not solely the problem.
The authority's director general Dandu Raj Ghimire said other factors were involved including only very brief windows of fine weather during which climbers could push for the summit.
Other veteran climbers have also pointed to the inexperience of some climbers and the pursuit of profits by climbing companies.
Share
