Climber makes mountaineering history on the Eiger

Imagine spending 13 nights slowly climbing up the side of one of the most dangerous rock faces on Earth.

Bedford climber Fay Manners, 39, has made mountaineering history doing just that after becoming the first British woman to open a new route on the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland on 13 August.

The mountain is famed for its 1,800m (5,900 ft) vertical north face which was first conquered in 1938.

Manners said: "It's a mountain where we've seen not only decades of men opening routes, but some really prominent female figures, soloing the north face in 17 hours like Catherine Destivelle.

"For me it's really cool to add another part of this history and that's really why I wanted to climb on there."

Manners added: "I chose it because there's so much rich history and it's such a prominent mountain that's well known by climbers and alpinists."

Route opening is where climbers make a new path available for other people to climb.

"I've read so much about routes that have been opened since the 1930s and the [Eiger] face is considered to be this extremely difficult mountain because of the steepness, rockfall, bad weather and limited escape options," she added.

Raised in Bedford, Manners went to Dame Alice Harpur School before studying information science at Loughborough University and pursuing a career in the technology sector.

She later became a full-time alpinist and skier and is a member of The North Face international athlete team.

Fay, who grew up in Bedford and is now based in France, spent 13 nights with climbing partner Roger Schaeli in a portaledge - a suspended collapsible platform used as a tent to carry equipment including sleeping bags, water and food - during their climb.

She said: "You're hanging in this really exposed position and even simple things like cooking food and going to the toilet are really hard work.

"It's that seriousness of the world you're living in that when I finally finished I didn't realise how tired I was and I came back and slept for a few days because I hadn't been sleeping well."

Fay and Roger have christened the new route Solar Eclipse after they caught a glimpse of the event on 12 August, while suspended 750m (2,460ft) up the mountain's rock face.

She said: "It was a surreal moment completely immersed in the mountains, watching an eclipse from our tiny home on the face."

In 2024 Manners and her climbing partner Michelle Dvorak became stranded on Chaukhamba mountain in India, when the rope lifting their belongings snapped and plummeted.

After being met by a search party she said the experience would not deter her from future climbs and in April completed her 20th expedition.

In terms of the future, Manners has previously said: "I don't think that far ahead as I am too busy thinking about tomorrow."

But she added she would "hopefully go back and climb the route because we spent so long opening it and still want to do a bit of cleaning to make sure it's a really beautiful route that others climb as well".

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