KATHMANDU ¨C For three days, Nepali mountaineer Dawa Sherpa was trapped deep inside a crevasse on Everest, surviving on biscuits, chocolates and chunks of ice, while back home his family had already begun mourning his death.

Sherpa himself had nearly given up hope of rescue, until an avalanche thundered into the 8-meter deep ice crack, filling it with snow and creating a route to freedom.

¡°I am very happy to be back, I thought I would die there,¡± Sherpa, 57, said, giving his first full account of his dramatic escape as he recovers in an apartment in Kathmandu with his family.

He had clawed his way out of the crevasse and crawled down the world¡¯s highest mountain with his frostbitten fingers, dragging his fractured leg and eventually nearly reaching Base Camp a week after he had been last seen.

Back home monks had already begun performing last rite rituals for him, as his devout Buddhist wife and daughter mourned him, presuming him dead.

Initially, in the confusion of the rescue, it was reported he had been missing for six days, since May 30.

In fact, even more remarkably, Sherpa reckons he had collapsed exhausted a day earlier on May 29 ¡ª?meaning he had been alone on the mountain for an entire week.

Sherpa, also known as Hillary like the legendary climber Edmund Hillary, was employed as a cook at Camp Two by a small expedition organizer, Himalayan Traverse Adventure.

But they roped him in as a substitute for a guide, despite never having summited Everest before.

Sherpa went as high as the Balcony, around 8,400 meters, on May 28, before descending to Camp Four at dark with British climber Chris Thrall, Polish climber Mariusz Chmielewski and guide Pasang Kaji Sherpa.

They were returning after one of the final summit pushes of the spring climbing season, in what has become the busiest year on record for Everest.

Thrall was the last to see Sherpa, after descending to an altitude of around 7,900 meters.

Sherpa said he fell behind because he ran out of oxygen, and told Thrall to continue.

¡°I told him to keep going, and that I will come,¡± he said. ¡°But when my oxygen ran out, I couldn¡¯t move my hands or feet. So I stayed at the rope for about half an hour.¡±

Alone and exhausted, he slowly made his way to a tent and found some noodles.

¡°I ate it, and it helped me gain consciousness ... I then came down to Camp Three,¡± he said, still around 7,100 meters high, where he spent a night in howling gales.

¡°I heated water... cooked some porridge and had it.¡±

By then, the rest of the team had...