2 Climbers, Including an American, Rescued 3 Days After Losing 'Safety Equipment' on 'Brutal' Himalayan Climb

Mar. 15, 2025

Then, on Oct. 2, they were “unlucky to have lost a bag during hauling which held most of our key safety equipment… our tent and stove, my down pants, crampons and ice axes,” she wrote.

Climbers Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak pose with rescuers after their experience on Chaukhamba mountain on Oct. 5, 2024.Indian Air Force/X

Indian Air Force/X

“We had reached 6,400m [approximately 20,000 feet] and had felt like we were through the major hardships of the climb. We were devastated that this meant the end of our attempt after so much continued effort, and knew that we would have to deal with this major drama in an already exhausted state,” Manners added.

According to theBBC, search and rescue teams were unable to locate the climbers after they sent an emergency message at over 20,000 feet. Manners shared that when she “watched the bag tumble down the mountain,” she “immediately knew the consequence of what was to come.” Her bag of equipment, when the rope snapped, “went down the entire mountain,” per the AP.

“I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking and with the lack of food my body was running out of energy to keep warm,” Manners said of the experience, with the BBC reporting that she and Dvorak had to share a sleeping bag and take cover under a ledge while it was snowing.

“They did try to rescue us but the conditions were brutal for the company to operate in,” she added. “Bad weather, fog, high altitude and they couldn’t find us as the face was so vast.”

“They supported us to get across the steep glacier that would have been impossible without our equipment crampons and ice axes,” Manners told the BBC. “We would have either frozen to death or attempted to cross the steep glaciers without the right equipment and slipped to our peril. Or maybe, maybe the helicopter would finally have found us?”

The Indian Air Force shared onX (formerly Twitter)over the weekend that its “Cheetah helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet, showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions.”

Photos and video from the rescue showed the two climbers boarding a helicopter before finally stepping on a landing pad and posing for a photo with their rescuers.

“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,” the air force wrote on X.

“We did very well to survive and retreat in the way that we did,” Manners later told the BBC.

source: people.com