Everest guide survived six-day ordeal by eating chocolate and 'chewing ice'

When Thrall first saw comments on social media saying Dawa Sherpa, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after famed mountaineer Edmund Hillary, had been found alive, he said he thought it was "spam"."It's kind of crazy one minute to be fighting back tears with his daughter, and then the next minute to see him crawling into town," Thrall told BBC's Newshour. "It's absolutely amazing, beyond words."His wife, Damu Sherpa, told news agency AFP she had given up hope, until seeing a picture of her husband."We thought he was no more, and had already begun his last rites," she said as she waited to meet him at the hospital."I was so surprised when I saw the photos and recognised him - he was still wearing a cap I knitted for him.""He recognised me … is good and speaks," his daughter Mhendo Lhamo Sherpa told Reuters news agency later, after visiting him. "We are happy."Doctors at Kathmandu's HAMS Hospital say Dawa Sherpa has been "receiving comprehensive medical care in the intensive care unit", but is stable and his "dehydration is showing significant improvement". More than 1,000 have summited Everest summit this season, making it the busiest on record.