British woman who saw solar eclipse from North Face of the Eiger had 'perfect viewing spot'

In German they call it Die Mordwand - the Murder Wall. To conquer the North Face of the Eiger, a climber has to get past the Death Bivouac, the Ramp, the Traverse of the Gods and the White Spider, on a wall that has killed at least 64 people since 1935. Fay Manners, 39, from Bedford, has not just conquered the deadly peak - she has become the first British woman to open a new route to the summit - the first British route put up on the Eiger in a decade. She spent 13 nights living and sleeping on the face with her climbing partner Roger Schaeli before summiting on August 13. Fay said: "All of a sudden you feel incredibly small. You realise how vast the mountain is and how much of a big challenge you've taken on to climb a whole new route. You can go from feeling very confident and capable and having fun to feeling a bit more intimidated, questioning, ‘whoa, what am I doing here?’" Climbing for 12 gruelling hours a day - sometimes more - Fay edged towards the summit. Nearing the halfway point, she fell. Fay said: "I got myself into what I thought was quite a solid position, and I was shouting down to Roger, ‘I'm going to pull up the drill and we need to put a bolt in here, it's really sketchy.’ Just as I said that one of the holds broke off, the one that I was holding on to with my left hand. Then it just went … I was falling." Falling around 10 metres, because she had been climbing diagonally across the face, it turned into a swing. She said: "The hardest part is knowing you have to go back up. You spend some time getting yourself together and then you get on with it.” After each day's climb the pair rested on a portaledge - a two-person tent suspended from the side of the mountain face. Fay said: "Honestly, you don't sleep that well. You think it looks so comfortable, you've got this beautiful view. The reality is, you've got someone's feet in your face and you're edging to the mountain too much or you're really close to the edge." The heaviest thing they carried was their water supply. Dinner was dried rations, to keep the weight of their packs down - although each climber brought treats. Fay said: "Roger is Swiss and he brought loads of cheese and sausage. I'm a chocoholic, so I just took loads of chocolate with me." After almost two weeks living and sleeping on the mountain, they reached the summit. Fay said: "People think that you get there and you're just like, ‘whoa, I'm on top of the world.’ But you reach the top and you're just like, ‘whoa, I'm so tired.’ It's almost hard to enjoy the moment." Her celebration came back home. She said: "I had a nice cold beer and I called my dad. Just hearing from him that he was really proud of me meant a lot. A lot of people know me for being a mountaineer, but that's not my full story. My dad knows where I've really, truly come from." Growing up in Bedford, Fay went to what was then Dame Alice Harpur School, now Bedford Girls' School. She said: "I was really obsessed with sports. Every sport you can imagine. I went to Loughborough Uni because it was the best for sport in the country. I'd told my parents that I was going to do data science, but I really went there just to play sport." But she worked in data science for more than ten years, in London and then New York, but she couldn’t ignore the pull of the outdoors. Fay said: "It's one thing not being able to have a career in sport, but it's another thing just not having the time to do the thing that I love." So, she moved to Mont Blanc, the European capital of mountaineering, saying: "I thought 'I'm just going to try it, because if I don't try it then I'm still stuck in this world of not being happy." Fay climbed at every spare moment - then the biggest sponsor in the sport got in touch. She said: "I was going and climbing routes that people hadn't done for like 50 years, and The North Face [US outdoor recreation company] noticed me as the ‘never stop girl’. They were like, ‘who are you?’ That's how I've been a professional alpinist for the past three years, because they gave me that opportunity." In that time, she’s opened more than 20 new routes - in Pakistan, Greenland, Morocco, Norway and across the Alps. And all routes led to the Eiger, with some danger on the way. In 2024, Fay and her American climbing partner, Michelle Dvorak, were stranded at 20,000ft on Chaukhamba III in northern India, when a falling rock cut their tagline and sent their food, tent and equipment into a ravine. Refusing to let fear get the better of her, Fay said: "You just need to accept that there is a bit of risk in what we do." Currently taking time out to make sure the route she and Roger have just discovered will be in good shape for other climbers - she’s letting her achievement sink in. Recalling a very special moment, she said: "If you'd told me a few years ago that I would be a professional alpinist, about to complete a new route to the summit of the Eiger, sitting there watching a solar eclipse, I would have thought you were mad. "The eclipse was special. Within the hour, all the lights and the colours were softening. Then we had this moment of darkness. It gave me a huge appreciation for where I was, and that I was in such a privileged position to be in such a scenic place, where I just had the perfect viewing spot. "When I got down and told my mum she was like, ‘did you wear the glasses?’ I said ‘no, mum, I didn't take any special glasses on my 13 days on the wall just in case the solar eclipse came!’" Calling the new route Solar Eclipse, to honour the moment, Fay added: "It's hard to say that I'm proud, because that makes me feel a bit self-absorbed. But I am. "I didn't even realise that there was a way that you could be a professional alpinist, especially as a woman. But there’s a rich history of female climbers - and female climbers on the Eiger. I've just added to it. It shows that if people want to try something, they shouldn't be put off. Don't ever think there's a ceiling to what your dreams could be." Eiger Facts -The Eiger stands 3,967 metres high in the Bernese Alps. -First climbed in 1858 by Irishman Charles Barrington, an inexperienced mountaineer, he chose it because he could not afford to travel to the Matterhorn. -The North Face held out for another 80 years. - A mile of near-vertical rock and ice, the Eiger curves inwards, so climbers are exposed to whatever falls from above. - The North Face makes its own weather, with storms arriving fast and without warning. - The first serious attempt came in August 1935, when Max Sedlmayr and Karl Mehringer were caught in a storm and died high on the wall. The spot where one body was later found is now called the Death Bivouac. In 1936 four more died. - The North Face was not climbed until July 1938, when four Austrian and German climbers reached the top after more than three days on the wall. - At least 64 climbers have died on it since 1935.