AP, LUCKNOW, India

Two foreign climbers have been rescued after being stranded for three days on a mountain in India’s Himalayan north.

Fay Manners from the UK and Michelle Dvorak from the US were ascending a rocky section of the Chaukhamba-3 peak in India’s Uttarakhand state when they got stranded, said Sandeep Tiwari, a senior administrative officer of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli District.

The climbers were rescued on Sunday, he said.

This photograph shared by Indian Air Force on the X platform shows two foreign climbers, center, who were stranded in India’s Himalayas posing with Indian Air Force personnel who rescued them in Uttarakhand, India, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.

Photo courtesy of Indian Air Force on X via AP

The climbers were first reported stranded on Thursday last week when a rockfall severed their rope, sending their bags — along with crucial supplies such as food, 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.

“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,” Manners told reporters on Sunday.

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 last week 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 authorities.

The Indian Air Force in a statement on social media said that it airlifted the climbers on Sunday “from 17,400 feet [5,304m], showcasing remarkable coordination in extreme conditions.”

Chaukhamba-3 is a mountain peak in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.