A British climber missing in the Himalayas has expressed her relief after surviving two days in "brutal" conditions that endangered her life. Fay Manners, originally from Bedfordshire, and her climbing partner, Michelle Dvorak from the United States, were stranded on Chaukhamba mountain in northern India when the rope lifting their supplies snapped, leaving them without food, a tent, or climbing gear.
The pair managed to send an emergency message from over 20,000 feet (6,096 meters), but search and rescue teams initially struggled to locate them. Manners recounted their "terrifying" descent attempts until they were finally rescued.
Manners, an accomplished alpinist now living in Chamonix, France, described feeling "despair" when a loose rock severed the rope carrying their bags. “I watched the bag tumble down the mountain and immediately knew the consequences,” she said, realizing they had lost their safety equipment, including tents and stoves.
As the weather worsened, the two women took cover on a ledge and shared their only sleeping bag. “I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking, and with the lack of food, my body was running out of energy,” Manners recalled.
Despite a helicopter's efforts to rescue them, bad weather and fog prevented a successful extraction, forcing them to endure another night on the mountain. “They did try to rescue us, but the conditions were brutal. They couldn’t find us because the terrain was so vast,” Manners explained.
After managing to abseil down the mountain and collect melting ice for water, the duo barely survived the storm that followed. When a helicopter flew past again without spotting them, they realized they had to make a descent on their own.
On the second morning, as they cautiously abseiled down a rock spur, they encountered a group of French climbers who had heard of their plight from mutual friends. The rescuers provided them with equipment and food and contacted a helicopter with their exact location.
“I cried with relief knowing we might survive,” Manners said. The climbers helped them navigate across a steep glacier that would have been impossible without proper gear. “Without their support, we could have frozen to death or slipped into the abyss,” she noted.
Manners, the first woman to ascend the Phantom Direct route on the Grand Jorasses in Mont Blanc, has climbed peaks in Pakistan and Greenland over the past year. She aims to inspire women to explore alpinism and mountaineering as a hobby.
Despite the ordeal, Manners considered the rope-cutting incident "unfortunate and rare," emphasizing their survival skills. Feeling exhausted and mentally drained, she and Dvorak planned to enjoy local Indian cuisine before returning home.
A spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office confirmed their support for the families of the climbers who were reported missing and have since been safely rescued.