ISSAQUAH, Wash. — An Issaquah woman survived 72 hours stuck on a mountain in the Himalayas after disaster struck at more than 20,000 feet.
According to a release from the city, Michelle Dvorak was climbing with a partner on the side of a glacier on Chaukhama III, a mountain in the Himalayas in Northern India, when a rock dislodged and sliced through their bag.
The pair lost most of their equipment, including critical survival gear like their tent, stove, crampons, and ice axes.
For the next three days, the climbers fought to survive. According to the city, they were eventually rescued thanks to help from some French climbers.
According to the news release, the team climbed to meet them and helped them by providing water, food, and clothing. The French climbers also used their satellite phone to call for help, arranging for the Indian Air Force to rescue them from the glacier.
Dvorak told the city she’s been climbing since she was 20, and she credits her years of training for keeping her alive.
“I would say that my training and climbing experience helped us get up the route, and helped me to acclimatize; but as for staying alive the only experience I think actually helped were those times in which I’ve pushed myself to my mental and physical limits, at high altitude,” she said. “Because to find water, to dig out places to sleep, to rappel down a steep face took more than I could have provided had I not practiced endurance and suffering in the mountains before. My thoughts were almost entirely occupied in figuring out how to stay warm and find water, which ultimately prompted us to continue our descent despite our lack of glacier and bivy equipment.”
The experience isn’t hindering her sense of adventure; she told the city she is determined to keep on climbing.
“There’s so much I haven’t done,” she said. “Climbing and goals are inseparable, as we all know and feel.”
She said she hopes to climb Alaskan peaks like Hunter and Foraker, the Emperor Face of Mount Robson in the Canadian Rockies, and the Cerro Torre Group in Patagonia.
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