Touching The Void

An account of the ascent of the 21,000ft Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes. Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had achieved the summit before the first disaster struck. This reading tells what happened and how the pair dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted.

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Joe Simpson was well equiped to tackle the unclimbed West Face of the remote 21, 000 ft Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes with just his partner, Simon Yates. In June 1985 they achieved the summit before disaster struck. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead. For three days he wrestled with guilt as they prepared to return home. Then a cry in the night took them out with torches, where they found Joe badly injured, crawling through the snowstorm in a delirium. Far fromcausing Joe's death, Simon had paradoxically saved his friend's life.