Experienced climbers Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were making good progress on India’s Chaukhamba III peak when a rockfall swept away crucial equipment. Here’s how they survived against the odds
Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak weren’t sure if they’d make it when their bag of climbing gear, food and other equipment plunged into a deep gorge.
The climbers were close to 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) on the Chaukhamba Massif in north India when disaster struck on Thursday, October 3, and it took three days for them to be rescued. Stranded on the Chaukhamba III mountain for 60 hours, Fay, 37 and Michelle, 31, became convinced they’d succumb to hypothermia.
“I was just trembling all the time,” Fay told The Times. “It wasn’t so bad in the mornings when it was sunny but at night — oh, I felt so, so cold.”
Rockfall had left the Brit from Bedfordshire, who now lives in Chamonix, France, only with light clothes including leggings. Clothed more warmly, climate science student Michelle hadn’t lost her bag in the rockfall and it contained the piece of equipment that saved their lives.
“It’s a special sleeping bag designed for two persons,” she explained. “We both huddled in it to keep warm but gradually the sleeping bag became wet from all the snow and ice around us and so did our clothes.” “Only our body warmth saved us,” added elite climber Fay. “Cuddling saved us. Luckily, we are good friends.”
The women had managed to send an SOS to their friends back in base camp on the Thursday when their bag was lost but nothing more had been heard from them. They saw a search helicopter at one point but perched on a 10in wide, 2ft long ledge, they were invisible to its pilot.
Without the right gear, the climbers were unable to try and descend so they had to hope they’d be found before it was too late. The 7,000 metres peak they were climbing is known for its volatile weather, icefalls and sharp ridges but they had been making good progress ahead of the rockfall.
As the hours turned into days with the climbers lethargic and running on empty, the women’s equipment, including their life saving sleeping bag, began deteriorating due to the snow. But on the Thursday night, with lights turned off at base camp, a light had been seen flickering in the dark so a search mission had been launched.
Colonel Madan Gurung, a Gurkha from Nepal and director of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, was part of the rescue effort which saw Indian Air Force helicopters try to locate the women on the Friday and Saturday, when the weather conditions permitted.
They failed the pair so four members of the state disaster response team were dropped by helicopter at base camp to start searching for the climbers on foot. Three French mountaineers, all soldiers, who were trying to climb a nearby peak were drafted into help.
It was the soldiers who found Fay and Michelle at 6.30pm on the Saturday evening, with the Brit dissolving into tears when she realised she had been saved. The mountaineers had spotted a patch of flat land the helicopter could land on on the way up so early Sunday morning, this hovered on the spot while the women got on.
Against the odds, a vital sleeping bag and lots of cuddling had saved the women who were checked out by a doctor and given the all clear. Despite their ordeal, Fay and Michelle are considering attempting the peak again in the future.
