Book Review: Touching The Void

Touching The Void on amazon.com [also check out the DVD movie!]

Book Review: Touching The Void

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! Recently read the book of an excellent docu-drama Chris & I saw while on STAS last summer: Touching The Void, by Joe Simpson. One of the most incredible survival stories--ever!--it chronicles a climb made in the mid-1980's on a difficult 22,000 ft. Peruvian Andes' mountain by Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates.

What would you do if your partner broke his leg & heel at over 19,000 feet on a perilous, wind-swept mountain, with a terrible snow storm quickly gathering intensity? What would you do if your climbing partner, whom you've been lowering thousands of feet by a rope belayed around you, was dangling over a precipice hundreds of feet below you, threatening to pull you down the mountain with him? What would you do if you fell over a hundred feet into a deep crevasse and your climbing partner, who was sure you had perished, left you and returned to base camp?

As one reviewer states below, therein lies the tale, and enough to make anyone believe in miracles.

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
by Joe Simpson
171 used & new available from $2.04
Edition: Paperback

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Concise and yet packed with detail, Touching the Void, Joe Simpson's harrowing account of near-death in the Peruvian Andes, is a compact tour de force that wrestles with issues of bravery, friendship, physical endurance, the code of the mountains, and the will to live. Simpson dedicates the book to his climbing partner, Simon Yates, and to "those friends who have gone to the mountains and have not returned." What is it that compels certain individuals to willingly seek out the most inhospitable climate on earth? To risk their lives in an attempt to leave footprints where few or none have gone before? Simpson's vivid narrative of a dangerous climbing expedition will convince even the most die-hard couch potato that such pursuits fall within the realm of the sane. As the author struggles ever higher, readers learn of the mountain's awesome power, the beautiful--and sometimes deadly--sheets of blue glacial ice, and the accomplishment of a successful ascent. And then catastrophe: the second half of Touching the Void sees Simpson at his darkest moment. With a smashed, useless leg, he and his partner must struggle down a near-vertical face--and that's only the beginning of their troubles.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
New York Newsday
"Told with lyrical quality and stunning immediacy, Touching the Void transcends its genre and becomes accessible to readers who have never had any desire to climb a glacier."--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Perennial Currents; Revised edition (January, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060730552
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces. (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: based on 120 reviews. (Write a review)

EXTREME ADVENTURE IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES, July 30, 2000
Reviewer:
Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews

An amazing tale of courage, fortitude, and a desire to live, despite dire circumstances. The author, Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, ascend a perilous section of the Peruvian Andes. Near the summit, tragedy strikes when Joe, up over 19,000 feet, falls and hits a slope at the base of a cliff, breaking his right leg, rupturing his right knee, and shattering his right heel. Beneath him is a seemingly endless fall to the bottom. Simon reaches him but knows that the chances for Joe to get off the mountain are virtually non-existent. Yet, they fashion a daring plan to to do just that.

For the next few hours, through a snow storm, they work in tandem, and manage a risky, yet effective way of trying to lower Joe down the mountain. About three thousand feet down, Joe who is still roped to Simon, drops off an edge, and finds himself now free hanging in space six feet away from an ice wall, unable to reach it with his axe. The edge is over hung about fifteen feet above him. The dark outline of a crevasse lies about a hundred feet directly below him.

Joe couln't get up, and Simon couldn't get down. In fact, Joe's weight began to pull Simon off the mountain. So, Simon was finally forced to do the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He cut the rope, believing that he was consigning his friend to certain death. Therein lies the tale.

What happens next is sure to make one believe in miracles.
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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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