A British climber gave up the chance to reach the top of Mount Everest less than 500 metres from the summit to save the life of a fellow mountaineer.



Leslie Binns, who served in the British army for 13 years, turned around to save Indian climber Sunita Hazra in the early hours of 21 May. He was about 12 hours from the summit of the world’s highest mountain when he came across someone sliding down the fixed climbing line ahead of him.

Binns told the BBC he could hear the woman’s screams and managed to halt her fall: “I helped her upright and looked at her oxygen regulator – it was registering empty.” It was then that the former soldier, who now works as a security contractor in Iraq’s oilfields, decided to abandon his bid to reach the summit.

“I climbed down to her and called my sherpa. I told him we were not going up and we would give Sunita my spare oxygen bottle and take her down,” Binns said.

During the difficult and dangerous descent, the trio found another climber who was also struggling to descend and took him with them. However, the man kept collapsing, and exhaustion and difficult conditions meant they were unable to bring him to Binns’ camp.

“I gave Sunita my sleeping bag in my tent. We then tried our best to get her warm by patting and rubbing her. She was suffering from hypothermia and her right hand was badly frostbitten,” he told the BBC. The next morning, Hazra’s sherpa collected her from the camp and helped her continue descending the mountain.



The following day, when Binns resumed his descent, he came across the body of the other climber they had to leave behind. “I am immensely proud that I helped Sunita. I just wish I could have done more,” he said.

Hazra, 32, who lives near Kolkata, left hospital on Wednesday after being treated for frostbite. Her brother, Kingshuk Chatterjee, told the BBC Binns was the reason Hazra was still alive: “He is a very brave man.”

Binns added: “I wish Sunita and her family all the best and hope she makes a full recovery.”

The Rotherham man served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and has been awarded two bravery medals. He is due to return to the UK on Monday to be reunited with his fiancee and daughter.