A British climber who has been missing in the Himalayas for more than three days has been rescued.
Fay Manners, 37, and her American friend Michelle Dvorak, 31, had been unaccounted for since Thursday while trekking up India’s Chaukhamba mountain.
A spokesman for India’s Disaster Management Centre, a government agency which responds to emergencies in the country, confirmed that the pair had been found after being stranded at 6,015 metres.
“Both mountaineers are safe, but they look very exhausted,” N K Joshi, the spokesman, said.
The Indian News Agency IANS said the rescue operation had concluded successfully after 80 hours. Conducted by the Indian Air Force, the Army, and local administration, the operation began on October 4 following a report from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation.
On Thursday, the pair sent an urgent message back to base camp to say they had lost their climbing equipment, tent and food down a gorge. It is believed they sent their SOS message to mountain rescue while they were 20,350ft up the mountain and were not heard from after. Helicopters were sent to search for the two women in the snow-capped region of northern India.
Speaking to reporters after being rescued, Ms Manners said the pair had lost their equipment when a rockfall crashed into it.
“We were pulling up my bag and she had her bag on her,” she said. “And the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain.”
Ms Manners said the pair then sent an urgent message calling for help.
“We sent a message to our friends and they knew,” she said. “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.”
Images of the rescue shared by the Indian Air Force showed the climbers being airlifted in a grey Cheetah light helicopter from a snow-covered plateau.
“The rescue of two foreign 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,” the Indian Air Force said in a statement. “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.”
Ms Manners, from Bedford, left the UK to move to the Alps to pursue her passion for climbing, becoming a professional alpinist sponsored by brands including The North Face and Petzl.
Ms Dvorak is also an experienced climber as well as a teaching assistant at the University of Washington, according to her social media.
Both women were given permission by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) before they began their ascent, as is required to climb mountains as difficult as Chaukhamba.
