Facebook post of unconscious Australian climber who failed to reach summit of Everest discovered

An Australian man found unconscious 1.5 kilometres from the summit of Mount Everest had described mountain conditions as a “nightmare” three weeks earlier.

Gilian Lee, from Canberra, expressed serious concern about his ability to climb towards the peak of the famed Nepalese mountain without additional oxygen in a Facebook post on 8 May.

He explained he would “never” consider using oxygen because he felt it would be cheating, saying he may as well climb half the distance.

Mr Lee discussed in his post at what point he should acclimatise given he intended to go ahead without extra oxygen.

“If I use C1 [Camp 1, 6,100m] as my acclimatisation high point, it would be interesting to see how I would go (with that) as my launching pad. The science for acclimatisation for non-O2 (climbers) is not as well known.”

He added it was a “horrible feeling” knowing the process from that point onwards was out of his hands.

In response to someone asking if he would consider using O2 simply to reach the summit, Mr Lee said he would “never”.

“It would not be me doing it. I might as well chop 50 per cent of the mountain height off,” he wrote.

Mr Lee was discovered at 7,500 metres by other climbers last Wednesday.

Miraculously he was still alive and was taken to hospital in Kathmandu, where he remains in the intensive care unit, Canberra Times reported.

The day before being found he wrote on Twitter explaining he’d had a “Rough night at C1” because of a “persistent chest infection”.

Rescuers used a yak and a team of Tibetan alpine specialists to get Mr Lee down to base camp then transported to hospital.

A post from his brother, Ian Lee, on Facebook said Mr Lee was expected to be out of ICU within the next two or three days.

"Mum had a call from the doctor and Gil has improved this morning. (His) liver has started working again and (we) expect (his) kidney to do the same," he wrote.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has provided consular assistance to the man.

Eleven people have died in little more than two weeks after poor weather cut the climbing window, leaving mountaineers waiting in long queues to the summit, risking exhaustion and running out of oxygen.

Mr Lee had attempted three times prior to reach the summit - in 2015, 2017, and 2018.