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 tragic attempt to climb the 6344 meter (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. In 2003 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.
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The story
Warning: Although Touching the Void is a true story, the next section contains details as to the content of the book and film, and may be regarded as a spoiler.
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 leg 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 heat 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. 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 was eventually forced to cut the rope, dropping Simpson into a crevasse.
The next morning Yates descended down the mountain alone, and found the cliff. He realised what must have happened to Simpson and to his horror saw the crevasse below. He was certain that Simpson must have have died in the crevasse and descended down the rest of the mountain alone, itself a very dangerous feat.
In fact, Simpson had survived, despite a 100 foot fall and broken leg. He eventually abseiled from his landing spot on an ice bridge 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 civilisation. Yates had burnt Simpson's clothes and many of his other possessions.
Simpson's survival is widely regarded by mountaineers as amongst the most amazing pieces of mountaineering lore in history. Debate raged in the community for several years about whether Yates was right to cut the rope. Simpson, however, continues to maintain that Yates had no other option in the circumstances, and the pair remain friends.
Making the film
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 very emotionally difficult because it opened up old memories that he would've preferred to have kept locked up, eventually said that he was happy with the film and its portrayal of the events. Yates on the other hand became deeply unhappy with the film-making process and decided to have nothing to do with the film once he had returned from Siula Grande.
The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson and Yates and extended dramatic sections - with the second part of the film relying almost exclusively on a quite extraordinary performance by young Irish actor Brendan Mackey
Bibliography
- Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson, ISBN 0099771012 published by Vintage
References
- Touching the Void: Return to Siula Grande "Extra feature" on the region 2 DVD release of the film
External links
- Template:Imdb title
- Article on filming the book with comments from Joe and Simon (http://westmidlands.ideasfactory.com/writing/features/feature32.htm)fr:La Mort suspendue