Following an acute lung infection, Barry soon switched to the University of Cincinnati, earning a Bachelor of Science in Geology with Omicron Delta Kappa honors in 1954.
As part of his undergraduate research, he did field work in the Denali area in the summer of 1951,[1] during which time he participated in Bradford Washburn's expedition, reaching the summit on July 10, 1951, to claim the fourth ascent of the mountain and the first by the West Buttress route.
By 1958, when he was honorably discharged from the Air Force at age 27, Bishop had accumulated considerable skills as a mountaineer, polar scientist, photographer and explorer.
His 1963 photography work on the American Everest Expedition earned him a National Press Photographers Association Special Award.
As darkness fell around 7:30, they made what was possibly voice contact with Hornbein and Unsoeld, who had indeed successfully summited via the West Ridge and were now above them, attempting to descend to the South Col, thereby completing the first traverse on Everest.
Still believing the other team had failed to summit, Bishop told his partner he thought the two of them were dead and the voice they heard was God calling them to heaven.
The four eventually managed to defy all odds and rendezvous but, due to the extreme danger of down climbing without fixed ropes in the dark, decided to bivouac.
[12] The loss of his toes marked the end of Bishop's technical climbing career, and in the late 1960s he refocused his energies on academics, enrolling in the University of Chicago's Ph.D. program in geography in 1966, assisting in high-altitude physiology studies, and planning and executing the field research for his dissertation, a cultural-ecological analysis of the Karnali Zone of western Nepal.
[2] On September 24, 1994, Bishop was on his way to deliver a lecture in San Francisco when he apparently veered onto the shoulder of the highway, lost control of his car, and was killed.
"[11] His daughter Tara is married to mountaineer Greg Mortenson, co-author of the New York Times best seller Three Cups of Tea.