A British climber has been rescued from a mountain in India after going missing for three days.
Fay Manners, 37, was trying to scale the Chaukhamba mountain in the north of the country – near the border with Nepal – alongside her friend Michelle Dvorak, 31, from the United States.
Manners sent a frantic message back to the base camp on Thursday saying they were in trouble after their equipment fell down a gorge.
The pair were then stranded 21,325ft (6,500m) above ground.
Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were rescued
A desperate search was then launched in order to find the two climbers, before it was abandoned on Friday due to the arctic weather conditions and the high altitude, which mean that helicopters couldn’t reach, a source told The Sun.
However, in good news earlier today, Manners posted a photo of her and Dvorak on Instagram with the pair looking uninjured and in good spirits.
The picture was accompanied with the caption: “We are back down and safe.”
Indian News Agency IANS said that the rescue operation was conducted by the Indian Air Force, local disaster response forces, the army, and the local administration.
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Fay Manners is an experienced climber
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They added that it lasted 80 hours and battled through bad weather to get to the two women.
A French climbing party was also involved in the rescue.
In a statement, the Indian Air Force said: “The rescue of two foreign (US & UK) mountaineers from Chaukhamba III trek in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli is a testament to the resilience and skill of the Indian Air Force, along with the collaborative efforts of SDRF, NIM, and French mountaineers.
“After battling two days of bad weather, the IAF’s Cheetah helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet, showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions.”
Fay Manners was stranded for three days
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Manners told The Telegraph: “We were pulling up my bag and she had her bag on her, and the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain.
“We sent a message to our friends and they knew.
“I live in France and that team is also coming from France… and so they had told [the rescuers], ‘Oh they are stuck on the mountain, they have no equipment’.”