Israeli trekker survives altitude sickness and blizzard in Nepal

Avi Ezra, 26, from Beitar Illit, says a Nepal hiking trip that began after a tropical beach vacation nearly cost him his life. Speaking to ynet, he described going from “bikini and sea” in the Maldives to shivering in the Himalayas within days, after meeting friends on Facebook who invited him to trek there. He landed in Nepal on a Friday, bought gear on Saturday night, and started hiking on Sunday, despite having no mountaineering background or serious preparation.

Ezra completed the Annapurna Circuit in 11 days, then the shorter Mardi Himal Trek in three days, and immediately continued to Everest Base Camp. At 5,450 meters, he said his body “collapsed” with severe shortness of breath, headaches, dizziness, nosebleeds, coughing and shaking. He was sleeping in uninsulated wooden huts and says a month of hard walking left him in a major calorie deficit, worsened by keeping kosher and eating mostly dates, tuna packets and small snacks.

At a makeshift mountain clinic, he refused invasive treatment, and a remote Israeli doctor for his insurance company guided the team while oxygen equipment helped stabilize him. After a difficult night, a helicopter evacuated him from the Gokyo area to Lukla and then to a hospital in Kathmandu, where doctors checked his chest for pulmonary edema and gave him multiple medications. He recovered relatively quickly, but the altitude sickness ended his trekking season.

Ezra also recalled a separate dangerous episode in which he and a friend got lost in a snowstorm on the Everest route after trying to take a shortcut. With little phone battery left and visibility near zero, they walked for six hours before finding a lone tent where two people pointed them back onto the trail. He says he is drawn to extreme conditions because they test mental resilience, and while he now admits better gear would have helped, he still insists, “When the waves get stronger, the strong are revealed.”