Fay Manners and her friend Michelle Dvorak were stranded on the mountain for three days after a rockfall cut off their equipment and left them at an altitude of more than 6,000m
A British climber who went missing for three days in the Himalayas confirmed she has made it down safely.
Fay Manners and her American friend Michelle Dvorak were climbing up India’s Chaukhamba mountain before they became unaccounted for on Thursday, October 3.
Fay, 37, and Michelle, 31, became stranded at an altitude of around 6,000m, Indian news agency IANS reported, and were airlifted down the mountain on Sunday after an 80-hour search by the Indian Air Force, army and local authorities. Fay wrote on her Instagram after the rescue mission was concluded: “We’re back down and safe.”
She told after being rescued how the pair had lost their equipment after a rockfall crashed into it.
“We were pulling up my bag and she had her bag on her,” she told The Telegraph. “And the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain.”
She added: “We sent a message to our friends and they knew. I live in France and that team is also coming from France… and so they had told [the rescuers], ‘Oh they are stuck on the mountain, they have no equipment.’ So then this other team [of mountaineers] came to help us.”
The Indian Air Force said on social media site X: “The rescue of two foreign (US & UK) mountaineers from Chaukhamba III trek in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli is a testament to the resilience and skill of the Indian Air Force, along with the collaborative efforts of SDRF, NIM, and French mountaineers. After battling two days of bad weather, the IAF’s Cheetah helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet, showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions.”
The Brit alpine climber had sent a frantic message to base camp on Thursday (October 3), saying their equipment had fallen down a steep gorge. Searches for Fay had to be halted on Friday (October 4) due to poor weather conditions and the high altitude that helicopters couldn’t reach, a source revealed.
But authorities told the media they had intended to retrace the pair’s route up the mountain before they found the climbers on Sunday. Fay, from Bedford, looks to “inspire women to pursue their interest” in mountaineering.
She had moved from the UK to the Alps in pursuit of her passion for alpine climbing. Michelle, 31, is a University of Washington alumni. The pair had set off from New Delhi after receiving permission to scale Chaukhamba III on September 15.
