Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were perched high on the snowy face of a Himalayan mountain when disaster struck their quest to become the first to summit its peak.
At more than 6,000 metres (about 20,000 feet) above sea level, a falling rock sliced through the rope carrying Manners鈥 bag, leaving the climbers stranded in the inhospitable wilderness without vital supplies including their tent, stove, food, crampons and ice axes.
鈥淚t was kind of a horrifying experience,鈥 Manners told CNN on Wednesday from the Indian capital New Delhi, where the two women are now waiting to go home following their miraculous rescue.
鈥淎ll I can really remember is just seeing the bag go down the mountain and being really shocked, thinking, 鈥楬ow has this happened? Like, what鈥檚 going on?鈥欌
But for both climbers, their immediate reaction wasn鈥檛 fear for their safety or survival 鈥 it was devastation that their mission, which required painstaking preparation, training, and altitude acclimatization, was being cut short when they were so close to their goal.
The bag they lost contained vital supplies including their tent, stove, food, and Manners' crampons and ice axes. (Fay Manners via CNN Newsource)
Manners, a Briton living in France, and Dvorak, an American, had been 鈥渁bsolutely desperate鈥 to reach the summit of the unclimbed peak in India鈥檚 northern Uttarakhand state.
Their attempt to climb the nearly 7,000-metre Chaukhamba III began on September 27, as they clambered across ice and rock and slept on narrow ledges. The approach to the mountain alone was incredibly tough, Manners said 鈥 they had chosen a maze-like route that navigated endless deep crevasses and precarious snow bridges that risked collapsing in warmer weather. It took three attempts before they could even reach the base of the mountain, she said.
鈥淲e were near the end of all the difficulties 鈥 (we) maybe had one more day to get to the summit, and then we would have been the first to reach this summit,鈥 Manners said. Instead, 鈥渙ur dreams were just falling down the mountain.鈥
Without their gear, climbing back down and across the crevasses was near-impossible, so they contacted emergency services for help. But the severity of their situation soon became clear when helicopters failed to spot them on the vast mountain face the next morning 鈥 and again the following day.
Climbers Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak attempted to summit Chaukhamba III in Uttarakhand, India, before they were stranded for three days.
(Fay Manners via CNN Newsource)
Ravindra Singh Negi, the information officer in Uttarakhand鈥檚 Chamoli district, told CNN the rescue operation had included the Indian Air Force, the State Disaster Response Force and the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering.
鈥淲e searched all day at the coordinates provided to us by the tour company but did not find anything,鈥 he said.
All the while, the climbers had no food besides two energy bars that they 鈥渘ibbled on,鈥 and no water, since their stove to melt snow had been lost, Manners said.
Even their dehydrated food was no use without the stove. At one point, desperate and dehydrated, they abseiled to a spot with dripping ice and collected a tiny amount of water during the few hours when the sun was out.
And the conditions steadily deteriorated as they faced a snowstorm, hail and even an avalanche. They huddled together in their wet sleeping bag, hair frozen solid, with nighttime temperatures reaching 鈥15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit).
They spent three days waiting for rescue before venturing down the mountain by themselves, until they were found by a French climbing team. (Fay Manners via CNN Newsource)
鈥淚 was close to hypothermia, I think, and I was shaking so violently through the night that Michelle had to hold my legs to just try and keep me warm,鈥 Manners said. 鈥淭hat sleeping bag saved our lives.鈥
That鈥檚 when they knew they had to act, even if they were weak and disoriented, she said. The next morning, they began abseiling down the mountain through thick fog, knowing the journey back to base camp could be 鈥渋ncredibly dangerous鈥 with high chances of serious injury or falling down a crevasse.
But as they reached the bottom, they glimpsed a group of French mountaineers 鈥 a rival team that had also been hoping to reach the summit first. Negi, the information officer, said Indian authorities had reached out to the French team for assistance after being unable to locate Manners and Dvorak.
When Manners realized the French team had been sent to rescue them, 鈥渁ll my emotions came out at once, and I had some tears in my eyes,鈥 she said.
With their help, she and Dvorak trekked to the French base camp, munching on cheese their rescuers had brought from France, she said. The Indian Air Force then airlifted them to a nearby hospital on Sunday, three long days after they were stranded.
Both climbers are uninjured and eager to fly home. And their brush with death hasn鈥檛 deterred them from following their dreams, said Manners, who encourages women and girls to pursue the sport. She wants to try the summit again next year 鈥 perhaps with the French team who rescued them.
A photo released by the Indian Air Force showing the rescue of the climbers, who were airlifted to a hospital in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, for assessment. (Indian Air Force/X (formerly Twitter) via CNN Newsource)
When people look at their experience, she hopes they see two strong women who 鈥済ot really close to the top,鈥 she said. And when things went awry, they were 鈥渟till able to survive and manage themselves through that really adverse and terrible situation.鈥
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