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'My horrifying mountain rescue has not put me off'

Fay Manners Fay Manners with her climbing partner Michelle Dvorak on a snowy mountain top. They are wearing helmets and smiling at the camera.Fay Manners
Fay Manners (right) became stranded on Chaukhamba mountain with her climbing partner Michelle Dvorak

A British mountaineer said the "horrifying" experience of going missing in the Himalayas would not deter her from future expeditions.

Fay Manners was found alongside her climbing partner, Michelle Dvorak, on Chaukhamba mountain, in northern India, on Sunday after an 80-hour rescue mission.

The pair had been stranded at more than 20,000ft (6,096m) when the rope lifting their food, tent and climbing equipment snapped and plummeted.

On her next trip, Ms Manners, who grew up in Bedfordshire, said: "I think I'm just going to take a more relaxed climbing holiday."

Both Ms Manners, 37, and Ms Dvorak, 31, from the United States, could only watch on as rescue helicopters failed to see them on two separate occasions.

They later decided they had no choice but to make part of their descent alone, before being met by a search party.

Reuters An aerial shot of a helicopter having landed on snow near two people with a third person walking between them.Reuters
A helicopter made two attempts to find the missing women but adverse weather conditions hampered the search

"Although it was a really horrifying experience, mountaineering is my passion and it won’t deter me from continuing to do the sport," said Ms Manners, who now lives in Chamonix, France.

However, the alpinist stressed having a rope snap on a loose rock was "a really rare occurrence".

"It's usually really unlikely there would be such loose rock and rock form that would tangle your rope and split your tagline," Ms Manners said.

"I’ve been mountaineering for over 10 years on some really extreme routes, where I’ve been pioneering new lines, and it hasn’t happened to me before."

'Cried with relief'

Ms Manners was left almost hypothermic after she and Ms Dvorak took cover on a ledge for their first night while it snowed.

After managing their daring abseil down the mountain face, they found some melting ice and were able to catch some water in their bottles.

Fay Manners Taken from above, a woman in orange, her face obscured, is climbing the sheer face of a mountain, below her is thick fog obscuring the drop.Fay Manners
The climbers used ropes to lift their supplies in steep situations where it was not ideal to carry them on their back

As they descended down a rock spur the following morning, they spotted a team of French climbers coming towards them.

They shared their equipment, food and sleeping bags with the women and contacted the helicopter for rescue.

"We were really dehydrated and my body was just absolutely exhausted from trying to stay warm," Ms Manners said.

The climber explained how she "cried with relief" after realising she could survive.

Despite the ordeal, Ms Manners told the BBC she had already outlined her next trip, which will be a rock climbing expedition in Morocco.

Before that, she planned to be "eating lots of Cadbury's chocolate" as a reward for surviving her most recent challenge.

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