When he returned the following morning, he saw “lakhs of corpses lying around.” Failing to reach the place where helicopters were rescuing people, he walked to an acquaintance's house in Gaurichetty. He came back to Kedarnath the next day, but this time too, he could not cross the river to reach the rescue site. He saw people being washed away by the river, as they attempted to tide over its rage.

Finally, with the help of a Gujjar milkman, Subhash, along with 40 other men from his village, walked through the forested slopes to reach Gauri Khark. Twenty had perished by the time they reached.