Climber makes mountaineering history on the Eiger

Fay Manners, a 39-year-old climber from Bedford, has achieved a historic mountaineering feat by becoming the first British woman to establish a new route on the Eiger's north face in Switzerland. This remarkable accomplishment, completed on August 13, involved spending 13 nights ascending one of the world's most perilous rock faces.

The Eiger is renowned for its 1,800m (5,900 ft) vertical north face, which was initially conquered in 1938. Manners expressed her motivation, stating, "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." She 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 involves climbers creating a new path for others to ascend. Manners explained, "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."

Manners, who grew up in Bedford and attended Dame Alice Harpur School before studying information science at Loughborough University and working in technology, later transitioned to a full-time career as an alpinist and skier. She is a member of The North Face international athlete team.

During their 13-night ascent, Manners and her climbing partner, Roger Schaeli, who is based in France, lived in a portaledge – a suspended, collapsible platform used as a tent for equipment, including sleeping bags, water, and food. She described the challenges: "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."

The new route has been named "Solar Eclipse" by Fay and Roger, inspired by a glimpse of the celestial event they witnessed on August 12 while suspended 750m up the mountain's rock face. Manners described it as "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 faced a perilous situation on Chaukhamba mountain in India when a rope carrying their belongings snapped. Despite this, Manners, who was met by a search party, stated that the experience would not deter her from future climbs, and she completed her 20th expedition in April.

Regarding her future plans, Manners has previously said, "I don't think that far ahead as I am too busy thinking about tomorrow." However, she expressed her hope to "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."