Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

Touching the Void is a 1988 memoir by British author Joe Simpson. The book recounts the disastrous, near-fatal attempt of Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, to ascend the West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. The book details Simpson’s harrowing ordeal, in which he broke his leg and fell into a crevasse, and how he survived against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Simpson’s narrative highlights the resilience of the human spirit and explores the complex dynamics of trust and moral decisions in extreme situations. Touching the Void has become a classic in adventure literature, praised for its honesty, depth, and emotional impact. The memoir won the 1989 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and the NCR Book Award. It was adapted into a BAFTA Award-winning docudrama in 2003 and a stage play in 2018.

This guide refers to the 2012 DirectAuthors.com e-book edition.

Content Warning: This book includes graphic descriptions of injury and suffering, intense psychological distress, and themes of existential crisis.

Summary

In the summer of 1985, British mountaineer Joe Simpson and his climbing partner Simon Yates attempted an unclimbed route in the Peruvian Andes. The two young men planned to climb the near-vertical West Face of the 20,813-foot Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash mountain range. To acclimatize to the conditions, Simpson and Yates embarked on four training climbs. Each time, snowstorms and dangerous climbing conditions defeated them.

Leaving their non-mountaineering friend, Richard Hawking, in base camp, Simpson and Yates told him they should be back within five days. On the ascent of Siula Grande, the climbers took turns serving as the lead and belay point while joined together by a 150-foot rope. The first days of the expedition presented significant hazards and obstacles, including snowstorms and dangerous terrain. Since their progress was slower than they expected, they climbed in the dark in subzero temperatures in an attempt to make up for lost time. Yates had frostbite in his fingers and at one point fell through a cornice. At night, they slept in snowholes.

On the morning of day four, Simpson and Yates reached the summit. The next day, they used the last of the fuel for their stove, so they could no longer melt snow and ice to drink. They also ate the last of their food, planning a speedy descent to base camp. As Simpson led the climb down the near-vertical North Ridge, he fell down an ice cliff and broke his right leg. Simpson feared that Yates would have to leave him to die, but his climbing partner undertook a dangerous rappel to get to him. Assessing the severity of his friend’s injuries, however, Yates was secretly convinced that Simpson would not get off the mountain alive but resolved to try to help him regardless.

Next, Yates attempted to lower Simpson down the mountain using a complex and time-consuming belaying technique. At first, the system worked, but eventually, in the dark and stormy conditions, Yates could not see or hear Simpson and inadvertently lowered his friend over the edge of an ice cliff.

Simpson attempted to climb to safety. However, his hands were numb from the cold, and he accidentally dropped vital equipment. For more than an hour, he was suspended in space, expecting to die. Given the continued weight on the rope, Yates realized that Simpson must have fallen but was unable to haul him back up. His friend’s weight pulled him toward the cliff edge, threatening to drag him down to the glacier below. Yates realized that to save his own life, he must cut the rope. He did so, figuring that Simpson would fall to the glacier below and likely die. However, Simpson fell into a crevasse, landing on a ledge.

Yates spent the night in a snow cave. When he reached base camp the next day, he was severely dehydrated. Although certain that cutting the rope was the right decision, he felt guilty and worried about how others would react.

Meanwhile, Simpson initially believed that Yates had also fallen and was likely dead. When he realized that the rope had been cut, he decided that he was not prepared to slowly die in the crevasse. Using his remaining rope and equipment, he rappelled further into its depths, discovering another exit point. Twelve hours later, he emerged back onto the glacier.

Simpson now faced a six-mile descent to base camp with a broken leg and no food or water. He alternated between crawling and hobbling, using his ice axes as crutches. His limited view while crawling meant that he was in greater danger of falling into crevasses, so he followed Yates’s footprints until snow obscured them. During the arduous journey, Simpson often drifted into a delusional state, but a voice in his head always brought him back to reality. The voice instructed him to reach certain landmarks by a specified time, giving him focus.

Convinced that Simpson was dead, Yates and Richard prepared to leave base camp. The night before they planned to depart, Simpson crawled into camp. Emaciated, dehydrated, and on the brink of death, Simpson told Yates he was right to cut the rope and collapsed. They embarked on the two-day trip to the hospital in Lima, where Simpson underwent his first surgery.

Following his ordeal, Simpson had five further surgeries and defied doctors’ predictions that he would never climb again. However, during a 1987 climbing trip to the Himalayas, he stayed at base camp because of knee pain.

In Simpson and Yates’s memoirs—Touching the Void and Against the Wall, respectively—they defend the rope-cutting decision. However, Yates was the target of public criticism for his actions.

During the filming of the docudrama Touching the Void, based on the book, Simpson experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when he returned to the scene of his ordeal. He discovered that speaking to audiences about his experience was an effective therapy.