Ex-British soldier dramatically saves a stricken climber who collapsed near summit of Mount Everest

A former British Army soldier dramatically rescued 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 8,704-meter South Summit — just 100 meters below the main summit.

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

The climber, who was taken to hospital by helicopter, had been stranded on the mountainside all night enduring sub-zero temperatures.

Rescuing climbers who collapse above 26,200 feet – the so-called death zone – is often impossible due to the lack of oxygen, extreme cold and high winds.

Purja and three other Everest guides spent four hours lowering Captain Dipendra Singh Khatri to camp four at 25,035 feet last Tuesday

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

Purja, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, posted a video of the rescue last week, saying: ‘Leaving someone behind is not in my blood.’

He grew up in Nepal and joined the British Army, becoming the first Gurkha to join the elite Special Boat Service.

In 2019, he reached the tops of the 14 highest mountains in the world in a record time of six months.

Purja said, ‘Together we took the climber all the way to camp four and there we handed over [him] under the care of two Sherpas.’

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

Although the climber had severe frostbite, Purja said he was “recovering well.”