Everest Climber Thanks Sponsors, Blocks Sherpa Who Saved His Life

The global mountain-climbing community has been riveted with drama after a climber who was dramatically rescued near the summit of Mt. Everest last month reportedly snubbed the sherpa credited with saving his life.

Gelje Sherpa found Malaysian climber Ravichandran Tharumalingam clinging to a rope in the mountain's "death zone," where the high altitude makes it difficult to breathe and temperatures can dip into the negative double-digits.

Gelje and his client abandoned their planned trip to the summit and instead carried Tharumalingam 1,900 feet back down to a base camp in just six hours, using a sleeping bag to keep him warm. Tharumalingam was later rescued by a high-altitude helicopter team.

Once Tharumalingam had safely returned to Malaysia, he appeared on television to share his story and thanked his expedition partners and helicopter rescuers, but he apparently failed to mention Gelje. In other posts, the Malaysian promoted a different climb and advertised T-shirts, but again made no mention of the sherpa who saved his life.

When social media users urged Tharumalingam to credit his rescuer, some claimed that the climber began deleting their comments.

Then, after commenters suggested that Tharumalingam had blocked Gelje altogether, the sherpa reposted an Instagram story seemingly confirming those claims.

After continued backlash, Tharumalingam eventually included Gelje in a list of sherpas who contributed to his rescue, saying "sherpas are people who are so committed and dedicated to their clients."

But he failed to acknowledge that Gelje had singlehandedly delivered him to safety at the base camp.

"Thank you," Gelje responded. "Hope you are recovering well."

It was Tharumalingam's third attempt at scaling Everest: He lost the tips of eight fingers on an expedition last year due to frostbite, according to Channel NewsAsia.

This has been a particularly dangerous climbing season, with up to 17 deaths already recorded in 2023, compared with the typical five to 10, according to The Guardian.