Touching the Void

by Joe Simpson
List(s):"Extreme Classics"
Category: "Travel"
Pages:218
Year of Publication:1989
Date Added:01/29/2010
Date Read:03/04/2015
Notes:Subtitle: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

The author, with fellow climber Simon, attempts a difficult ascent up an unclimbed face of a remote mountain in Peru. They reach the peak, but shortly after beginning their descent, Simpson falls and breaks his leg. The two men work out a system — Simon bracing in a hole in the snow slope while lowering Simpson on a rope. Although Simpson is in great pain, the system works and they nearly make it to the base of a glacier where progress will be easier. But in the dark, Simpson slips over the edge of a drop and is suspended in mid-air. Simon hangs on as long as he can, but figuring his friend to be dead, an about to fall himself, he cuts the rope. Simpson falls, not only to the glacier, but down onto a ledge deep in a crevasse. Simon figures he's dead and returns to camp to mourn. Simpson doesn't die, and, over the next three days manages to crawl out of the crevasse, across the glacier and several miles over boulder fields to arrive at camp, dehydrated, starving and nearly in a coma just before Simon pulls out to go home. Simpson is carried out on a mule and, after six operations, resumed climbing.
My Rating: 7

Reviews for Touching the Void

Review - Touching the Void

OK, this was an impressive story about two tough men. The way the partnered up to get Simpson down from the peak with a broken leg was noteworthy. I can imagine how Simon felt cutting the rope and leaving his friend behind, and I can almost imagine how tough Simpson must have been to deal with the pain of a shattered leg while crawling for three days.

And yet it was all unnecessary and reckless and egotistical and stupid. The mountain had been climbed before. That it hadn't been climbed by their particular route means nothing. Nobody has ever walked around my block wearing waffle irons instead of shoes while singing songs from Mary Poppins loudly. That doesn't mean doing so is an accomplishment.

It's not that these guys want to climb mountains that bothers me — just their aura of superiority, as though what they're doing matters.

Reviewed by Roger on 2015-03-04 15:08:23

Back to the list