When the time comes for the climbers to make their way back to Kathmandu, Hornbein sets out on foot. Porters carry Bishop, Jersted and Unsoeld, who each have extreme frostbite in their feet and toes and cannot walk. Four porters are assigned to each man and trade-off carrying him. Soon they make it a race to see which group can move their climber along the fastest. In a couple of days the climbers reach a place where an emergency helicopter can come and pick up the men. Bishop and Unsoeld are flown to the United Mission Hospital in Kathmandu. Their wives are there to greet them. It turns out that their feet can be saved but many of their toes need to be amputated.

Jersted is expected to be able to walk in a few days so he remains on the mountain. When he is feeling better, he hikes for two weeks, back through the forest and the jungle to Kathmandu where they started.

Thinking about it more, Bishop decides that you can challenge Everest but you cannot conquer it. When he wrote about his experience on the tallest mountain in the world, he said, “There are no true victors, only survivors.”