Does a helicopter come and pick them up or do they have to climb back down?

They turn into pink turtles and fly away into oblivion.

They feel high.

They have to climb back down.

They get to the top , take a picture or two, spend a total, of five minutes on summit and get the hell out of there bc the death zone of big mountains is no place to linger

They attempt to climb back down without getting killed in the process.

Normally the last day of the ascent involves about 20 hours of climbing. Half of that is used to make the summit, the rest of it is to make it back to the high camp for the night. It can take another 3 days to make it back to base camp.

They have to go back the same way they came. The air is too thin for helicopters to reach the top.

Even from smaller mountians like Denali in Alaska, you have to climb back down because helicopters cannot safely go above a certain altitude like 15,000 to 20,000 ft and even the ones that go that high are for rescue only.

Coming back down is MUCH easier so you can go several times as far in a day as going up, but there are still dangers coming back down and down climbing is very difficult in the technical sections.

They have to go back down.like most other mountains.

For the most part, there r no helicopters that can fly to 29,000 ft. There is an experimental unmanned helicopter that can fly to 30K ft, that may be used for rescues in the future, but it is not ''ready for prime time''. Emphasis on the RESCUES, not for pick or to bring tourists to the summit (but that will probably happen eventually).

As Ed Viesturs says ''Getting to the top is optional.getting back down is mandatory''.

they climb back down, most of the deaths occur on the way down because people are tired, oxygen deprived, and not focused

you usually go back the way you came since the route is already established and the winds and air density make it too hard to land aircraft or even hover aircraft over the summit. there is a reason the summit is known as the death zone. some adventurers have chosen to cross the summit and go down the backside of Everest, but it is heavily covered by glaciers and hidden crevaces, and many have not made it back.