‘If we don’t get off this mountain I don’t think I can do another night’: climber Fay Manners on surviving the odds

6,400m up a rarely climbed peak in the Himalayas, two climbers lost most of their kit – and nearly their lives. One of them, Fay Manners, explains what keeps her climbing

Fay Manners was 6,400m up a mountain in the Indian Himalayas when she heard her climbing partner, Michelle Dvorak, scream from below. The rope attaching her to the rock face snapped tight, but held firm. Fearing something terrible had happened, Manners looked down with dread – but thankfully Dvorak was still dangling beneath her on the end of the rope.

Her relief quickly turned to horror when she realised the bag containing most of their gear, which they had been hauling on the rope behind them, had been cut loose by a falling rock and was gone. Along with it went much of their safety gear, their tent, food, stove and water.

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