Touching the Void Totally Explained

Everything about Touching The Void totally explained

Touching the Void is a book by Joe Simpson recounting the true story of Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The book won the 1989 NCR Book Award. In 2003, fifteen years after it was first published, the book was turned into a documentary film of the same name directed by Kevin MacDonald. The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2004 BAFTA Awards and was featured at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Controversy

Some members of the climbing community feel that Yates was mistaken to cut the rope, and that he should have held on as long as he could to give Simpson every chance to work out a solution to his predicament. Joe Simpson himself has never voiced anything other than complete support for Simon Yates' action.
Further it should be noted that Simpson was freezing to death on the end of the rope, and wouldn't have lasted much longer, even if the belay seat he'd used to support himself in the loose snow had lasted (which it didn't). Cutting the rope not only freed Yates to seek shelter from the storm, but dropped Simpson down to a sheltered spot where he too could survive the weather. Had the two fallen while roped together, it's possible that Simpson would still have survived, but it's very unlikey that Yates would have. As it was, Yates climbed down to base camp and met up with their traveling companion, Richard. Yates and Richard lingered for a few days in base camp while Yates regained strength and his own injuries healed. When Simpson crawled into camp in the middle of the night, they were in fact intending to leave in the morning. Had Yates not returned to base camp ahead of Simpson, Richard probably would have left well before Simpson managed to crawl out of the crevasse and down to camp. Without anyone to help him out of the mountains, Simpson would have died there. Thus, by cutting the rope Yates actually saved Simpson's life.

Remarks

Simpson's childhood, growing up, getting climbing experiences and also the times after the Touching the Void (including bit complicated healing of his injuries and writing the book) is described in his other book called This Game of Ghosts (Vintage Books, 1993).
A variant of the "Touching the Void" route was climbed later in 1999 and was called "Avoiding the Touch". (See Siula Grande)

Bibliography

Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson ISBN 0-09-977101-2 published by Vintage

Further Information

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