In mountaineering, reaching the summit does not mean the hardest part is over. The descent, often begun in fatigue and relaxation, can become a true survival test. From Everest to Nanga Parbat, from Annapurna to Siula Grande, a look back at some of the most harrowing descents in the history of mountaineering. These stories reveal how the most dangerous moments often occur not at the peak, but on the way down. In 1985, during an expedition on Siula Grande (6,356 m, Peru), Joe Simpson broke only one leg while descending from the summit but was alone. His climbing partner, Simon Yates, believed him dead, as people believed those of the Ogre were dead. The beginning of the story is classic: two friends, a beautiful mountain, an uneventful ascent, the joy of the summit. Then, the attention relaxes during the descent, resulting in a big mistake, high on the mountain, and a cry of pain. Simpson wrote in Touching the Void (Glénat, 2004) that he looked at his right leg and noted the knee formed a strange angle, giving the whole thing a rather bizarre appearance. At this point in the story, Simon Yates is still there. He would rather be elsewhere but is still there. At least for a few hours. "A survivor is better than zero: Yates cuts the rope and saves his skin." He then decides to let Simpson go first, letting him slide while holding him with the rope. The system works but in one hour, they only gain 90 meters, in pain. The base camp is 800 meters lower. The mission proves impossible but unless he abandons his friend, Yates does not really have a choice. Then comes this slope break. Simpson suddenly slides and ends up hanging in the void. Higher up, Yates finds himself blocked without knowing what has happened to the injured. The minutes pass... how many, no one knows anymore... Yates, on whom the weight of the rope literally and figuratively falls, can no longer endure. The cold comes with the approaching night, a decision must be made. A survivor is better than zero: Yates cuts the rope and saves his skin. Then begins the most improbable survival story in alpine literature. After a fall of several dozen meters, Joe Simpson lands in a crevasse, alive, first miracle. Then he manages somehow to extricate himself from the crevasse, second miracle. Then he crawls, suffers, agonizes, hallucinates, crawls again, suffers, sleeps a little, wakes up, hears voices, crawls, crawls, crawls... the thirst, the pain, death... but he crawls on... he survives three days and three nights on the mountain. And, third miracle, finally reaches the base camp. Simon Yates, who is in the process of packing to return home, is still there; fourth miracle. In 1992, during the descent of the south face of Annapurna, Pierre Beghin and Jean-Christophe Lafaille did not reach the summit. Therefore, it is not a culpable relaxation that is the origin of the disaster. They did not reach the summit but they certainly pushed the machine too far. Hence, perhaps, this slightly light anchoring on which is suspended with too much confidence a tired Pierre Beghin somewhere above 7,000 meters in the huge wall. A sharp snap, the friend lets go, Beghin falls into the void. The rope and most of the equipment with him. Lafaille remains alone, disoriented, with a skin to save. His chance is his solo experience inherited from his numerous winter odysseys in the Alps. That same evening, he manages to reach the small bivouac set up the previous day at 6,900 meters. He stays there a day and a night, not knowing what to do. Then he sets off on the descent, hoping to be rescued by the climbers of the Slovenian expedition whose tents he spots in the distance, very far away. Without pitons, he uses the arches of his tent as anchoring points. It is precarious but it holds. He has no choice anyway. He carefully gains meter by meter until he reaches a fixed rope set during the ascent. He is almost saved when a rock the size of a shoebox falls on his right arm. "It is his survival instinct and nothing else that pushes him to resume his laborious descent." He is found 150 meters lower, stunned as needed but miraculously still attached to the fixed rope. For his arm, however, no miracle. It is broken, like the legs of Doug Scott and Joe Simpson before him. Despite the pain, he manages to drag himself to the bivouac site where he stays another full day to agonize. The next day, it is his survival instinct and nothing else that pushes him to resume his laborious descent. With courage, he finally finds the old fixed ropes of a Japanese expedition that lead him to the radio at the advanced base camp... buried under several meters of snow. Fate is relentless. Bewildered, he continues towards the Slovenian camp until he meets the sirdar of the expedition climbing towards him. Saved. Less than a year later, he reaches the summit of Cho Oyu, his first 8,000.