British hero saves man in Everest’s death zone

A FORMER British Army Special Forces soldier dramatically saved a stricken climber close to the summit of Mount Everest in what has been described as the highest ever mountain rescue.

Nimsdai Purja, 39, saved the life of a Nepalese climber who collapsed on Everest’s 28,704fthigh South Summit – just 328ft below its main peak.

Purja and three other Everest guides spent four hours last Tuesday lowering Captain Dipendra Singh Khatri to Camp Four at 25,035ft.

The climber, who was taken to hospital by helicopter, had been stranded all night on the mountainside, enduring sub-zero temperatures. Rescuing climbers who collapse above 26,200ft – the so-called death zone – is often impossible because of the lack of oxygen, extreme cold and high winds.

The mountain is littered with the frozen bodies of more than 200 mountaineers.

Posting a video of the rescue last week, Purja, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, said: ‘Leaving someone behind isn’t in the blood.’

Having grown up in Nepal, he joined the British Army, becoming the first Gurkha to join the elite Special Boat Service. In 2019 he reached the summits of the world’s 14 highest mountains in a record six months.

Purja said: ‘Together we brought the climber all the way down to Camp Four and there we handed [him] into the care of two sherpas.’

On Friday he posted a picture of him with Captain Khatri at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

Although the climber had severe frostbite, Purja said he was ‘recovering well’.