World

American climber speaks out after being rescued 20,000 feet up in Himalayas

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 8, 2024

(NEW DELHI) — An American climber along with her British climbing partner have been rescued at an altitude of more than 20,000 feet after becoming stranded in the Himalayas for three days.

American Michelle Dvorak and her British climbing partner, Fay Manners, were trying to climb Chaukhamba Mountain in northern India last Wednesday when a rockfall caused the two mountaineers to lose one of their bags containing most of their climbing equipment.

“We heavily rely on the equipment that we have,” Manners told ABC News following the incident. “It’s essentially like our route to survival, our path to survival.”

“I sent a quick message off to our tour operator,” Dvorak told ABC News. “I also used this SOS function and within like five minutes my phone died.”

The two climbers hunkered down for a day and then slowly tried to descend the mountain while waiting to be rescued.

“The weather definitely got worse and worse each day,” Dvorak said.

“We weren’t drinking enough. We weren’t eating,” said Manners. “Our bodies were becoming weaker. You’d spend the evenings being really cold … I felt almost hypothermic.”

Indian Air Force helicopters had been unable to spot them since they went missing but, on Saturday, a French mountaineering team who was also attempting the climb up Chaukhamba Mountain found the stranded duo and were able to help them down the mountain.

“You see other climbers in trouble, and you want to help them,” Manners told ABC News. “We just feel really happy that they were there.”

The rescue operation ended up taking 80 hours, with the Indian Air Force eventually picking them up on Sunday from a safer altitude.

Said Dvorak: “Every time we like plan something like this, it’s like it feels like it’s all about the mountain and the objective and the climb. And then in the end, it’s about the people that you’re with.”