Lachenal, aware of their need to retreat, fought to snap Herzog from his stupor. The pair then made an epic descent that included a bivouac in a crevasse. Having lost his gloves, Herzog returned with hands as white and solid as wood. Their team-mates Gaston Rébuffat and Lionel Terray whipped his hands with rope ends in a futile attempt to restore circulation; they would later be amputated in the field by the expedition doctor, Jacques Oudot. Herzog did not spare his readers: “Beyond my wrists and ankles I could feel nothing,” he recounted. “My hands were in a terrible state. There was hardly any skin, and what was left was black. After an exam Oudot declared: 'I’ll be back in a moment to give you some injections...’”