Climbers who lost tent and gear on Himalayan peak rescued after three days

Two climbers who lost their tent and gear on a mountain in India's Himalayas have been rescued after getting stranded for three days.

British climber Fay Jane Manners and Michelle Theresa Dvorak, who is from the United States, were ascending a rocky section of the Chaukhamba-3 peak in India's Uttarakhand state when they got stranded.

Sandeep Tiwari, a senior administrative officer of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, said the climbers were eventually rescued on Sunday after first being reported stranded on Thursday.

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The climbers got stuck on the mountain peak, located in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India, when rockfall severed their rope, sending their bags - along with crucial supplies like food, their tent and climbing gear - into a gorge. The climbers also lost most of their communication equipment, but managed to send out an emergency message the same day.

Ms Manners told reporters: "We were pulling up my bag and she (Dvorak) had her bag on her. And the rockfall came, cut the rope with the other bag, and it just went down the entire mountain."

The rescue operation took 80 hours to complete and involved the Indian air force and the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority.

Rajkumar Negi, a spokesperson for India's disaster management agency, said that two Indian Air Force helicopters dispatched on Friday to help with the search were unable to locate the climbers. But on Saturday, a French mountaineering team, which was also attempting to climb the Chaukhamba-3 peak, located the stranded climbers and relayed their coordinates to the rescue authorities.

The Indian air force said in a statement on social platform X that it airlifted the climbers on Sunday "from 17,400 feet, showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions."