Sherpa saves tourist trapped in crevice on Mount Everest

The sherpa, Tashi Lakpa, rescued the hiker after he dropped down a narrow crevice between camp one and two while trekking up the world’s tallest mountain last month.

Footage uploaded to the sherpa’s Instagram page showed him smiling and laughing his way through the tense rescue mission, all while wedged in between two narrow walls of ice.

Using a shovel and a pulley system, the experienced sherpa managed to lift the hiker back to safety, with footage of the ordeal having since gone viral across social media.

Ididnn his post, the sherpa ’t shy away from acknowledging the fall could have easily resulted in an addition to the climb’s death toll.

“Safe one more life on everest …. This is incredible and extreme rescue from crevasse on Everest between camp 1 and camp 2,” his post read.

“Done by Dawa sherpa and I’m happy for my leadership and co-ordination by myself.”

Their heroic effort was not lost those who viewed the video.

“These people are the true hero behind all the uncredited deeds they do for the people that take all the credits conquering the summit,” a comment, with 1500 likes, read.

“I guess these sherpas on everest are the most hardcore humans,” another person wrote.

Many others pointed out how close the hiker’s brush with an even bigger catastrophe was.

“He was lucky it wasn’t deeper and it had a bottom floor or broke a leg on the way down, sometimes people have to be left in there because they’re stuck too deep in there,” one wrote.

“These videos are the stuff of my nightmares. I cannot even imagine being stuck in that space,” someone else said.

A tweet from Joe Pompliano highlighted how underrated the work of sherpas was.

“Falling down a crevice after paying $50,000 to climb Mount Everest sounds like the worst thing ever. But of course, a couple of badass sherpas stepped up and shovelled the guy out while smiling and laughing the entire time. Sherpas are so underrated,” he wrote.

Tashi Lakpa Sherpa is the CEO and founder of 14 Peaks Expedition and regularly updates his Instagram with the successes of his clients.

Australian man Jason Bernard Kennison became the 10th fatality on the world’s highest peak this climbing season after becoming “unresponsive” at the summit last month.

The trek made international headlines earlier this month when images surfaced showing a long line of climbers slowly making their way to the top.

Post-pandemic demand was blamed for the traffic jam, with Nepal reportedly handing out a record 463 permits between March and May, earning the government about $7.5 million ($US5 million).

Most people climb the south side of Everest in Nepal and they are required to buy a climbing permit from the government, which costs about $16,000 ($US11,000) per person.

This season’s “traffic jams” have been created by both a big number of climbers and limited good weather windows to reach the summit – similar conditions to a catastrophic 2019 season.

The 2019 spring climbing season made headlines for being flanked with “death, carnage and chaos”, with its 11 deaths making it one of the deadliest seasons in years.

Climbers were forced to line up and wait in high altitudes before continuing to their ascent, while others claimed they stepped over lifeless bodies while trekking back down the mountain.

Overcrowding and high numbers of relatively inexperienced climbers were cited as reasons for the high number of deaths.

This year’s deaths have already exceeded 2019’s “horror season”.