The climb to the summit is well underway on Day 5, still 132km from their destination.
The eleven remaining hikers enjoy a checkpoint breakfast, and former actor Simmone shares her story of struggle, determined to regain her confidence on this journey. She offers to lead the group on their hike today. Unbeknownst to them, a new threat, The Chaser, is released on the mountain. Back for blood, Season One’s Sam is recruited to hunt the group down and boot off one unlucky hiker, stealing their cash and taking their place.
The group arrives at an obstacle: a harrowing rope crossing over a 40-meter ravine with raging waters, and the only way across is in pairs. Their backpacks must travel separately, loaded onto a wooden platform. The group chooses their pairs, but the odd number of hikers leaves former pop star Tiffani alone. Unprofessional poker player Sharksey grabs Simmone as his partner, deciding to go first in the crossing. In their attempt to load their bags on the platform, they accidentally throw both packs into the ravine. They can still retrieve their bags, but only if they can make it across to the other side where they can hike down to retrieve them, costing the group precious time. The pressure’s on for these two to cross, but they fail, and Simmone smashes her arm on the rope, badly injuring herself.
Battered and bruised, Sharksey and Simmone take rest to watch the others’ attempts. Bubbly midwife Charlotte and actor Olympia take on the obstacle together. The two count their steps and hold on tight as they balance across the tightropes. They reach the end in a heartwarming triumph. Up next are sporting legend Mat and wharfie Taylor. Mat and Taylor successfully cross and haul both their bags, and Charlotte and Olympia’s bags across the ravine.
Dairy farmer Lachlan and Bali bombings survivor Phil are next to attempt the obstacle, and although the pair struggle, they make it to the other side. Seeing everyone’s success, Sharksey’s ego is severely bruised, and he begins to unleash a rant of dissatisfaction onto the remaining stranded hikers. Sharksey’s shouts conspiracy theories that the show is scripted, which spirals Simmone into a terrifying panic attack. Simmone taps into the motivation to push through for her son and pulls herself out of it; still shaken from the experience.
Up next are aerospace engineer Ava and weight loss transformation Trish who, despite a near fall, also successfully cross and pull their bags over. This sends Sharksey into complete madness, calling a producer over and threatening to quit if they don’t acknowledge that he’s been purposely stitched up.
On the other side, Mat volunteers to cross the obstacle solo and bring Tiff across. Although they struggle with their weight differences, the two cross, along with Tiff’s bag and her cash.
Meanwhile, in a desperate act to save Sharksey and his $53k, Lachlan and Taylor try to calm him down over walke talkies as the other hikers yell from across the gorge that separates them, but Sharksey refuses to see reason.
In one last ditch effort, Mat decides to cross solo again in order to convince to save Sharksey. But as the evac helicopter begins to land, time is running out, and Sharksey makes his final call – he is quitting.
Devastated by Sharksey’s decision, the group trek down the bottom of the ravine, and collect Simmone’s bag whilst Mat and Simmone successfully cross the obstacle together. Frustrated with his selfishness, the group decide to make tracks for camp – watching the helicopter whisk Sharksey away, along with his $53k, leaving the group with just $816k in the prize pot. The hikers reach bivvy camp, still 117km from the summit, and whilst they build camp, an injured Simmone sits alone, worried about the target that could now be on her back. But the group shouldn’t get too comfortable; Sam the chaser is hot on their tail as he continues to hike through the night, drawing closer by the minute
