Gelje Sherpa’s six-hour Everest rescue sparks recognition dispute

Times of India reported that Nepali guide Gelje Sherpa came across Malaysian climber Ravichandran Tharumalingam unable to continue near Everest's Balcony, inside the death zone, on 18 May. Gelje was on the mountain guiding a Chinese client at the time, he abandoned his own attempt to reach the summit and spent roughly six hours bringing Ravichandran down to Camp 4, where other guides took over and continued the descent to Camp 3 before a helicopter flew him out to hospital. In interviews he gave afterward, Ravichandran credited partner companies rather than Gelje by name, and faced online criticism accusing him of blocking Gelje on social media and deleting comments. He eventually acknowledged Gelje and the other guides by name in a later post. Exactly who coordinated each stage of the rescue, from the carry down to the helicopter flight, remains unclear from what has been reported so far.