“Touching the Void” Short Analysis
From Touching he Void Backgraund Joe Simpson’s book “Touching the Void” was publised in 1998; translated into 23 languages and achieved sales of 500,000 across all editions. When Joe Simpson and his friend Simon Yates decided to go climbing in Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, he wouldn’t imagine he would caught up in the most spectacular survival story. Fallen into a crevasse after Yates cuts the rope during an accident he was left for dead, but his will to survive was stronger than the odds. Main Characters
Joe Simpson – mountaineer/first climber-optimistic, Joe falls, breaking his leg and heel when he impacts the bottom then Simon cut the rope which Joe was hanging asuming that Joe will die. Simon Yates – mountaineer /climber – 21-ear-old, was faced with the first of two terrible decisions: should he abandon his friend – whom they both knew was as good as dead – or try to get him down the mountain? Yates chose the second option. Plot In the mid-80’s two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru; a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved.
With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no way of climbing back up, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. Joe falls into a crevice and Simon, assuming him dead, continues back down. Joe however survives the fall and was lucky to hit a ledge in the crevice.
This is the story of how he got back down. A man was on a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes Mountains where a fall broke his leg severely. Joe Simpson and his friend, Simon Yates were experienced mountain climbers but were not prepared for this grueling disaster in the hours that followed Joe’s fall. Surviving in sub zero temperatures, treacherous icy cliffs and a severe injury left Joe helpless while his climbing partner, Simon had to make difficult decisions for both of their survivals. Simon decided to painfully lower injured Joe slowly with ropes in the blinding snow and used tugs on the ropes as their communications.
A few hours went by as the climbing team tried in vein to avoid deep crevices and avalanches while the roaring wind and no visibility made the situation much worse. Simon felt no life on the other side of the rope for quite some time before he decided to cut his end, assuming his friend Joe had died from the descending attempts. The story progresses into unbelievable human emotion as Simon expresses the guilt he felt of not being able to save his friend and cutting the rope for his own survival as he makes the daring descend down to base camp to tell the sad news to others.
Meanwhile, Joe was not dead at all but seriously injured and crawled and slid down the mountain with no water or food for two days in blizzard conditions. Simon was packing up Joe’s belongings and getting ready to leave camp to tell Joe’s family the horrible news when all of a sudden he heard a howling wolf. The howling was coming from Joe unbeknownst to Simon until he decided to go investigate and was flabbergasted to see his injured friend a few miles from base camp.
