Two climbers who went missing for several days while making their way up a Himalayan mountain have revealed that cuddling together to preserve their body heat was the key to saving them from their terrifying ordeal.
Fay Manners, 37, and US climber Michelle Dvorak, 31, had been unaccounted for since Thursday when they got into difficulty while trekking up India‘s Chaukhamba mountain.
The pair sent a panicked message back to base camp to say they were in trouble having lost their climbing equipment, tent and food down a gorge.
Though they were stranded at an elevation of 6,015m (19,700 ft) as they attempted to get to the peak of the mountain in Uttarakhand, they have since been rescued in a daring helicopter mission and are now safe.
Speaking to the Times from the offices of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation in Delhi, Manners – an experienced climber, said: ‘Only our body warmth saved us. Cuddling saved us.’
She and Dvorak had lost their bags on their ascent following a rockfall, causing them to panic.
Ms Manners was stranded for several days at 6,015 metres on her climb to the mountain’s peak in Uttarakhand
American Michelle Dvorak, 31, (pictured) was also missing alongside Ms Manners
‘With your gear, you can still contemplate some options. Without your gear, you feel helpless. You can’t do anything to get to safety. There was no way we could attempt a descent’. Manners said.
Manners, who was the first woman to complete the ascent of the Phantom Direct route on the south face of the Grandes Jorasses, the longest ice route in the Mont Blanc massif, was left with only light clothing following the rockfall.
While she and Dvorak were able to warm themselves up in the morning sun, they were freezing by the time night fell.
‘I was just trembling all the time. Oh I felt so, so cold,’ she said.
The cold, and the seemingly increasing possibility that they wouldn’t get rescued, weighed heavily on them for days on end, but they were determined to be saved.
Fellow climbers at the mountain’s base camp knew they were alive.
Col Madan Gurung, director of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, said: ‘At night on Thursday all the lights were turned off at base camp and everyone looked at the mountains and we saw a light flickering in the dark.
‘We knew they were okay, we just had to get to them fast.’
The pair were rescued through a joint operation by the Indian Air Force, the State Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Management Authority
The mountaineers have now been found safe after being stranded on their climb to the peak in Uttarakhand
Ms Manners (pictured) has been found safe and well
At one point, they saw and heard a rescue helicopter fly over them, before being left disheartened by it leaving as the pilot could not see where they were sat.
‘It was so difficult … seeing the helicopter gave us hope but then as they flew away the sound faded’, Manners said.
Finally, they were evacuated through search efforts by the Indian Air Force, the State Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Management Authority.
Kapil Malhotra, their tour operator, said they were so exhausted that they looked drunk when he saw them emerge from the helicopter.
Speaking in a video after their rescue, Ms Manners said: ‘We were pulling up my bag, and she had her bag on her, and the rockfall came and cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain.’
Ms Manners said all she wants to do is eat ‘spicy Indian food’ and rest before she goes home.
Incredibly, she hasn’t ruled out attempting the Chaukhamba climb again – ‘but not for a while yet’.
Michelle Theresa Dvorak and Fay Manners, both experienced climbers, sent a message via pager to their liaison officer, saying their bag with food and vital gear had fallen into a gorge
British mountaineer Ms Manners seen on the mountain in a sleeping bag
The Brit, from Bedford, moved to the Alps to pursue her passion for climbing and became a professional alpinist, sponsored by brands including The North Face and Petzl.
She has become the first person to complete a number of complex routes up various alpine mountains.
‘My ambition is to inspire women to pursue their interest in alpinism,’ her website reads.
Ms Manners is a data consultant ‘by night’, according to her Instagram – which has over 15,000 followers.
Her companion, Michelle, is also an experienced climber as well as a teaching assistant at the University of Washington.
