The passengers were rescued after three days on a mountain in India

A British climber who went missing in the Himalayas has spoken of his relief after surviving two days in “brutal” life-threatening conditions.

Fay Manners, who is originally from Bedfordshire, and her climbing partner, Michelle Dvorak from the United States, were stranded on Mount Chaukhamba in northern India when the rope lifting their food, tent and climbing equipment broke, leaving them with no supplies.

The pair sent an emergency message at over 20,000ft (6,096m), but search and rescue teams were initially unable to locate them.

Ms Manners told the BBC the pair were “terrified” as they tried to make part of the descent on their own, before being met by rescuers.

Ms Manners is an alpinist, a mountaineer specializing in hard climbing, and now lives in Chamonix, France.

After a loose rock cut the rope used to pull the pair’s bags, Ms Manners said she felt “desperate”.

“I saw the bag falling down the mountain and I immediately knew the result of what was going to happen,” he said.

“We didn’t have any of our safety gear left. No tent. No snow melting stove to get water. No warm evening clothes. Our ice axes and crampons to take back to camp.

“No head torch for walking at night.”

The two were able to send a text message to emergency services, which led to a search and rescue.

The women hid on the edge as it began to snow, sharing the one sleeping bag they had.

“I felt overheated, I was constantly moving and because of the lack of food my body was losing the ability to keep warm,” said Ms Manners.

The next morning a helicopter came to find the two, but it didn’t – meaning they faced another 24 hours on the mountain.

“Indeed they tried to rescue us but the situation was not good for the company to operate in, the weather was not good, fog, high altitude and they did not find us as the face was so big,” he explained.

After making it down the mountain in the face of melting snow, the two women were able to grab water from their bottles.

Ms. Manners said they “barely survived” the storm in the afternoon and the second night in the cold with no food and only a little water.

“The helicopter flew again, it couldn’t see us. We were destroyed,” he said.

“We knew we had to try to get down ourselves as the helicopter was not going to help us.”

That second morning they began to run down cautiously, aware that their weakened state could lead to mistakes.

At that moment they saw a group of French climbers coming towards them – rescuers who had heard about their situation from mutual friends.

They shared their belongings, food and sleeping bags with the women and contacted the helicopter and the direct rescue area.

Mrs Manners said: “I cried with relief knowing we could survive.

“They supported us to cross the steep ice which would have been impossible without our equipment’s crampons and ice axes.

“We could have frozen to death or tried to cross the glaciers without proper equipment and slipped into danger.”

“Or maybe, maybe the helicopter would have found us in the end?”

In 2022 Ms Manners became the first woman to climb the Phantom Direct route on the south face of the Grand Jorasses on Mont Blanc.

He has also successfully climbed peaks in Pakistan and Greenland in the past year.

Mrs. Manners did he explained his desire to encourage women to pursue an interest in alpinism and to pursue mountaineering as a hobby.

He said the incident that severed the cord was “unfortunate and very rare”.

“We did very well to survive and bounce back the way we did,” Ms Manning added.

He said he felt “tired, mentally disturbed and so tired that I couldn’t even sleep”.

Now the two say they plan to eat local Indian food before catching a flight home to their loved ones.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who was reported missing in India and was rescued safely.”