Melbourne vet Robert Gropel is physically OK but emotionally devastated after being discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu just days after his wife died while descending Mount Everest.
Dr Gropel will now focus on retrieving the body of his wife, Melbourne University lecturer Marisa Strydom, from high on the mountain.
His parents, Heinz and Patricia, are in Nepal after flying out of Melbourne some 36 hours ago to be by his side.
"He has been discharged from hospital and still has some minor residual (altitude sickness)," Patricia Gropel told AAP via email.
"But he is physically OK."
Dr Gropel, who's too distressed to talk with news outlets, suffered from fluid in the lungs and swelling of the brain during the fatal expedition that claimed the life of his 34-year-old wife as well as Dutch climber Eric Arnold.
Dr Gropel was evacuated off the world's highest mountain by helicopter.
His wife's mother, Maritha Strydom, says there's "a glimmer of hope" her daughter's body can be retrieved from 8000 metres up Mount Everest.
"Thank you to my amazing family and in-laws who are all working as a team to make it happen and raise the fortune needed to bring Marisa back," she wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
The distraught mother added that expedition leader Arnold Coster had "offered his help in this regard".
Mr Coster has detailed what happened during the trek in a Facebook post.
"On May 20 our apparently perfect-looking summit push turned into disaster," he wrote of the expedition organised by Seven Summit Treks.
Everyone summited except Dr Strydom who decided to turn around just above the South Summit at 8am due to fatigue.
She and Mr Arnold both died during the descent, Mr Coster said.
"At the moment we are assembling a rescue team to try to retrieve the bodies.
"These tragic events numbed the whole team and our thoughts are with their family and friends."
Dr Strydom's sister Aletta Newman has told AAP that Dr Gropel is "absolutely distraught and broken" but "very determined not to leave Nepal without his wife".
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says consular assistance is being provided to both families.
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