American, British climbers rescued from Indian Himalayan peak
LUCKNOW, India: Two climbers from the United States and the United Kingdom were rescued after being stranded for three days on a peak in India’s Himalayan region.
Fay Jane Manners from the U.K. and Michelle Theresa Dvorak from the U.S. were ascending a rocky section of Chaukhamba-3 in Uttarakhand state when they were stranded, according to Sandeep Tiwari, a senior administrative officer in Chamoli district. They were rescued on October 6.
The climbers had been in trouble since October 3 when a rockfall severed their rope, causing their bags with essential supplies – including food, tent, and climbing gear – to fall into a gorge. They lost most of their communication equipment but managed to send out an emergency message.
“We were pulling up my bag, and she (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,” Manners said to local reporters.
The rescue operation, involving the Indian Air Force and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, took 80 hours to complete. Two helicopters from the Indian Air Force were dispatched on October 4 but initially failed to locate the climbers. The next day, a French mountaineering team attempting to climb the same peak spotted the stranded climbers and shared their coordinates with rescue authorities.
The Indian Air Force said on social media that the climbers were airlifted from an altitude of 17,400 feet, highlighting the challenging conditions of the mission.
Chaukhamba-3 is a peak in the Garhwal Himalayas in northern India.