Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were mountaineering in the Himalayas when their pack came loose from a rope. All their equipment fell into the void and they had to survive for 3 days at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters.
Fay Manners is a 37-year-old British woman who lives in Chamonix, Haute-Savoie. According to Free Middayshe is the first woman to have climbed the Phantom Direct route, on the south face of the Grandes Jorasses du Mont Blanc. In addition to this, she has climbed peaks in Pakistan and Greenland. Passionate about mountaineering, she decided to explore the Himalayan mountains with her partner Michelle Dvorak. However, everything did not go as planned.
While on Chaukhamba Mountain, the two women lost all their equipment. The rope that held their bags broke, an incident “unfortunate and very rare” according to Fay Manners. Thus, their food, their water, their tent and their clothes fell into the void, and it was impossible to recover them.
“I saw our bag plunge into the void and I immediately realized the consequences. We no longer had safety equipment, no more warm clothes for the evening, no headlamp to move around at night, no more ice axes or crampons”explained Fay Manners to the BBC.
They survive for 3 days
Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak immediately sent an emergency message to emergency services. A major rescue operation was launched but unfortunately the weather conditions were too bad to find the young women.
For three days, they survived in very difficult conditions. At an altitude of 6,096 meters, they took refuge on a ledge while waiting for help to arrive and shared a single sleeping bag. On the second day, a helicopter passed overhead without seeing them.
“I was hypothermic, shaking constantly and my body lacked the energy to keep warm. They tried to rescue us but conditions were difficult for the company. Bad weather, fog, high altitude… They couldn’t find us because the front was so vast. The helicopter passed again but did not see us. We were destroyed”explained Fay Manners to the BBC.
“I cried with relief”
On the third day, Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak gathered their courage and decided to rappel down the mountain. However, they had little equipment, were cold and tired, making the exercise very dangerous. Luckily, they managed to descend and met a group of French climbers.
“I cried with relief knowing that maybe we would survive. They helped us cross the steep glacier, which would have been impossible without our equipment, crampons and ice axes. We would have frozen to death or tried to cross the glaciers without the proper equipment and would have slipped at our own risk.”Fay Manners told the British media.
The climbers agreed to share their equipment, food and sleeping bags with the two young women. They also called the emergency services and told them the exact location where they were. So, Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were rescued. Safe and sound, they planned to eat local food to regain their strength before leaving by plane to return home and reunite with their loved ones.
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