Climbers rescued after being stranded in Himalayas for three days without supplies

A British mountaineer has been rescued after being stranded in the Himalayas for three days without climbing equipment, tent or food.

Fay Manners had been trekking up the Chaukhamba mountain in northern India with her American friend Michelle Dvorak when they got into difficulties.

They issued an SOS to the mountain’s base camp on Thursday after their equipment was swept into a ravine by a rockfall at 20,000ft.

But nothing further had been heard from them.

Yesterday, the climbers were found alive and well after a rescue operation involving the Indian air force and army.

A spokesman for India’s disaster management agency said: “Both mountaineers are safe, but they look very exhausted.”

Ms Manners, 37, described her ordeal to reporters at the scene, telling them: “We were pulling up my bag and she (Ms Dvorak) had her bag on her. And the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain. I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come.

“We sent a message to our friends and they knew. . . They had told (the rescue team): ‘They are stuck on the mountain, they have no equipment’. So then this other team of mountaineers came to help us.”

Ms Manners said she and Ms Dvorak, 31, protected themselves by sharing the only sleeping bag they had left as they awaited help.

Rescuers had been unable to locate them on the first day because of poor conditions.

Ms Manners said she was “hypothermic” and “constantly shaking” due to the lack of food and warmth.

They were able to abseil further down the mountain and captured melting ice to drink in their bottles.

On the second morning, the women said they realised “the helicopter wasn’t going to help” as it continued to fly past them, so they knew they had no choice but to move further down the mountain.

After abseiling further, they found a team of French rescuers before a Cheetah helicopter finally located them at around 17,400ft.

Ms Manners said she “cried with relief” as she realised “we might survive”.

Ms Manners posted a selfie of the pair on Instagram after being rescued, with the caption, “we are back down and safe”.

They are said to have been airlifted by an Indian air force helicopter to a helipad at Joshimath, a town 21 miles south-east of Chaukhamba, in Uttarakhand state, at 7am local time.

Ms Manners, originally from Bedford, moved to the French Alps to pursue her passion for climbing and became a professional alpinist, sponsored by brands including The North Face and Petzl.

Her companion Ms Dvorak, a teaching assistant at the University of Washington, is also an experienced climber and the pair have scaled some of the world’s most challenging peaks together.