In a harrowing tale of survival, British climber Fay Manners, 37, and her American companion Michelle Dvorak, 31, endured 55 hours of unimaginable terror on the treacherous slopes of Chaukhamba III in the Indian Himalayas. Stranded at 20,000 feet amidst a ferocious snowstorm, the pair faced death by starvation, freezing, or a fatal fall. Yet, in a remarkable revelation, Fay shared the one thought that fueled her will to survive: the iconic Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate.
The duo set out with the audacious goal of becoming the first to summit the unclimbed Himalayan peak. Six days into their ascent, just 2,300 feet from the summit, disaster struck. A sudden rockfall severed a critical climbing rope, sending their rucksack—packed with their tent, stove, warm clothes, ice axes, and crampons—plummeting into the abyss. “I watched the bag tumble down the mountain, and I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come,” Fay recalled in an emotional interview with The Telegraph. Without their essential gear, the women were left vulnerable to the merciless -30°C conditions.
Realizing the gravity of their predicament, Fay and Michelle made the agonizing decision to hunker down on a narrow ledge, hoping to stay safe long enough for rescue. They sent a desperate message to base camp, praying for help as the storm raged around them. “There were moments when I got really scared,” Fay admitted on ITV’s Good Morning Show. “We were trying our best to do what we could.” For two nights, they clung to hope, battling the elements and their own fears of freezing, starving, or slipping to their deaths.
Rescue helicopters circled overhead, their rotors a faint promise of salvation, but the blinding snowstorm obscured the women from view. “We could hear and see them, but they couldn’t spot us,” Fay recounted. As hours turned into days, hope began to fade—until a miraculous encounter changed everything.
On Saturday, a trio of French climbers—Palin Clovis, Jacques Olivier Chevallier, and Vivien Berlaud—stumbled upon the stranded pair while ascending the same route. The French team had abandoned their own summit ambitions upon hearing of Fay and Michelle’s plight. “As we were abseiling down, we saw climbers coming toward us,” Fay said. “When they told us they were there to help, I cried with relief, knowing we might survive.”
The French climbers provided critical support, sharing their tent, sleeping bags, food, and water. They guided Fay and Michelle across a perilous glacier that would have been impossible to navigate without equipment. Crucially, they alerted the Indian Air Force, pinpointing the women’s location. At 7 a.m. on Sunday, an Indian Air Force helicopter descended onto the Panpatia Bank Glacier at 5,300 meters, airlifting the exhausted climbers to safety in Joshimath, 21 miles away.
Col Madan Gurung of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, who coordinated the rescue, described the women as “exhausted but perfectly fine” upon their rescue. Their survival, Fay called a “small miracle,” owed to both the French climbers’ selflessness and her own unyielding mental resolve. In her first TV interview, she revealed the surprising source of her strength: the thought of savoring a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate once she returned home. “It’s the little things that keep you going,” she said, her voice tinged with gratitude.
Despite the trauma, Fay’s passion for climbing remains unshaken. The professional climber vowed to return to the mountains after some well-earned rest. Michelle, an experienced climber and teaching assistant at the University of Washington, also emerged from the ordeal with her spirit intact.
Their story is a testament to human resilience, the power of hope, and the unexpected comfort of a simple chocolate bar in the face of unimaginable odds.