Touching the Void
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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. 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.
Although previously attempted, Yates and Simpson were the first people to ascend to the summit of Siula Grande via the almost vertical west face. Disaster struck, however, on the descent. Simpson slipped down an ice cliff and landed awkwardly, smashing his tibia into his knee joint and breaking it. The pair, whose trip had already taken longer than they intended due to bad weather on the ascent, had run out of water and gas (which could have been used to melt ice and snow) and needed to descend quickly to their base camp, about 3,000 feet below.
They proceeded by tying two one hundred and fifty foot long ropes together and then tying themselves to each end. Yates dug himself into a hole in the snow and lowered Simpson down the mountain on the 300 feet of rope. But because the two ropes were tied together, the knot wouldn't go through the belay plates, so Simpson would have to stand on his good leg so it could give Yates enough slack to be able to unclip the rope, and then thread the rope back through the lowering device, with the knot on the other side. A second disaster struck however when Simpson was lowered over a 100 foot overhanging cliff and left dangling in mid-air. Yates could not see Simpson, but felt all his weight on the rope, very slowly pulling Yates down the mountain. He held on for about an hour but convinced that Simpson was dead was forced to cut the rope linking them, dropping Simpson into a crevasse.
The next morning Yates descended the mountain alone, and found the cliff. He realized what must have happened to Simpson and to his horror saw the crevasse below. He was certain that Simpson must have died in the crevasse and descended the rest of the mountain alone, which is itself a dangerous feat.
In fact, Simpson had survived, despite a 100 foot fall and broken leg. When he took in the rope, he discovered the end was cut. He eventually abseiled from his landing spot on an ice bridge (which broke his fall and therefore presumably saved his life) to the bottom of the crevasse, and crawled out back onto the glacier via a side opening. From there, he spent three days, without food and only splashes of water from melting ice, crawling and hopping five miles back to the base camp. Almost completely delusional, he reached the base camp a few hours before Yates intended to leave the camp to return to civilization.
Simpson's survival is widely regarded by mountaineers as amongst the most amazing pieces of mountaineering lore in history.
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[edit] The film
The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a reenactment performed by actors Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron and Ollie Ryall.
As part of the making of the film, the director and producers invited Yates and Simpson to return to Siula Grande in 2002 for the first time since the events of 1985. Simpson, despite finding the return emotionally difficult, eventually said that he was happy with the film and its portrayal of the events. Yates, on the other hand, reported having no emotional response to returning to Siula Grande, and decided to have nothing to do with the film once he had returned from the mountain.[1]
[edit] Controversy
After the story of what happened to Simpson and Yates reached home, Yates came under criticism by some mountaineers for cutting the rope during the descent. [1]
[edit] Musical trivia
In the film, the climbers reach the summit to the climax of Tallis's Spem in alium. It also includes excerpts from Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt, e.g. on the final credits. During one of Joe's many deliriums, he experienced a very strong reminiscence of a Boney M song, Brown Girl in the Ring - a song he hated thoroughly.
[edit] Bibliography
- Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson, ISBN 0-09-977101-2 published by Vintage
[edit] Cultural References
Simpson on the Mountain is referred to in Ali in the Jungle, a song by The Hours, as an example of courage over adversity.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Touching the Void at the Internet Movie Database
- Screenonline- review of the film, including synopsis, credits, stills and - if you have a licence- video clips
- Article on filming the book with comments from Joe and Simon
