Dawa Sherpa’s wife and daughter had already begun funeral rituals for him when they were told he was alive.

A Nepali Sherpa guide who went missing on Mount Everest six days ago has been found crawling alone to base camp after fears that he had died.

According to Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was coordinating the search for the missing guide, Dawa Sherpa was found by a clearing crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall.

Dawa, 52, was carried down to safety and given food and water. A rescue helicopter flew him to HAMS Hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where his wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral rituals, were waiting.

“We first heard that he was still alive on the local news and from a person we know who called with the news that … he is being brought down,” his wife, Damu Sherpa, said.

Dawa was last seen around May 29 descending the mountain. He did not reach base camp, although his client, a Polish climber, did.

There was a delay in organising a search team, and when rescue helicopters were finally sent to find him, they could not.

For Dawa’s family, hope of seeing him again was all but gone.

His teenage daughter, Mendo Lhamu Sherpa, said they were already on the second day of a funeral ritual, which lasts for several days.

“When we first heard about it, we could not be sure if that person was indeed our father,” Mendo Lhamu said.

“So to be certain, we asked for photos to be sent, and then only we were sure and very happy.”

The team that spotted him was part of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which lays ladders and ropes on the route at the start of each climbing season and then removes the equipment and cleans up the site after the climbers have left.

Last month, more than 1,000 climbers and their guides scaled Everest during the busiest climbing season ever on the world’s highest mountain. At least five people have died this season.