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

The Nepali guide discovered crawling down Everest six days after he was last seen alive has told the BBC he survived by "chewing ice" and eating a few chocolates he found in his pocket.

Dawa Sherpa was adamant he did not "go missing" on the descent down, but instead was forced to "stay behind" after his oxygen ran out.

It had been assumed Dawa Sherpa had perished on the mountain, with his family back in Nepal's capital Kathmandu starting to perform last rites before he was spotted by a clean up team "sliding" down the mountain towards Base Camp.

He was airlifted to hospital in Kathmandu, where he spoke to the BBC while receiving treatment for dehydration, frostbite and a fractured bone.

"I didn't think I would be alive," he told BBC Nepali on Friday. "I thought I would perish this way."

Climber Chris Thrall was the last person known to have seen Dawa Sherpa alive before he was rescued near the Khumbu Icefall on Thursday.

The former British soldier said the 57-year-old was sitting on his backpack just above Camp 3 - around 7,500m (24,600ft) - "as he had done hundreds of times before to take a short rest".

Thrall continued to descend alone for what he estimated to be about 50-100m before he came across another member of their group, a "Polish climber with no oxygen, battling fairly severe frostbite".

"So immediately my attention turned to the weakest member of the trio. And that was that," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"As I look back up the mountain, as I helped this guy descend, Hillary Dawa didn't appear to have moved, and certainly wasn't descending, because we would have seen his head torch."

Up above, Dawa Sherpa told the BBC he had found himself in trouble.

"I didn't eat anything for the first two days. Then I began chewing ice. It pained my teeth. I chewed the ice hard."

Then he discovered some chocolates in his pocket, and managed to get some melted ice to drink.

He made his way down slowly - only to fall into a crevasse, according to two different people who spoke to Dawa Sherpa about his ordeal.

For two-and-a-half days he was trapped, they said, unable to find a way out.

Then an avalanche sent snow tumbling into the crevasse - and gave him the first hope he had had in days.

"Stepping on the snow, I stood up and looked above... It felt I could get out from there," he told the BBC.

Once he had scrambled out, he found ropes nearby which helped his manoeuvre further down the world's tallest mountain.

Another avalanche threatened his progress, but he was determined to keep going.

"I got through the snow and moved downwards.