Lincoln Hall, 50, was left behind by his Sherpas on Thursday after he began hallucinating and refused to move.

But he was found alive on Friday, and rescuers have now accompanied him down to a camp at about 6,400m (21,000ft).

...on Friday, an American climber - Dan Mazur - came across Mr Hall and found he had survived the night, at more than 8,000m (24,000ft).

After giving him hot tea and oxygen, a radio call was made to Mr Abramov, who ordered an urgent rescue mission.

I stumbled and crawled through darkness in a howling ground blizzard, with wind blown ice grains sandblasting my now unmasked cheeks, down a never ending ice field toward a flickering distant light with hands covering my face and a dead headlamp. When I came to the tent I collapsed on hard icy snow and cried out. The door zipped open and I rolled in, crampons and all. Inside were two very surprised Russian teammates, Aleksey Klimin and Gennady Copieka. After pouring warm tea down me and trying to understand my nearly incoherent Russian-English babble, Aleksey went to look for Roman and came back in two hours alone. I wept, knowing my friend was dead. Gennady went next, this time with a very bright headlamp. In three hours Roman was in the tent, alive and uninjured. Gennady, being well rested and an incredibly strong climber, had somehow managed to find, carry, and lead/drag Roman back.