Touching the Void

Touching the Void is a 1988 book by Joe Simpson, recounting his and Simon Yates's near fatal descent after climbing the peak Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Approximately 15% of the book is written by Yates. It has sold over a million copies and has been translated into over 20 languages. Summary In 1985, Simpson and Yates reached the summit of Siula Grande, a major peak in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes via the previously unclimbed West Face. They began descending via the peak's North Ridge which the pair found unexpectedly challenging with Yates falling through a cornice down the face they had just climbed but he was held by the rope which prevented him falling 4500 ft to his death. Because the difficult terrain and the poor weather conditions prevented rapid progress with the descent, the pair had to spend a night in a snow hole on the ridge. During the night they had eaten the last of their food and used the last of fuel for their stove to melt ice and snow for drinking water. Continuing the descent the following morning Simpson fell from an ice cliff and landed awkwardly, breaking his right leg and crushing his tibia into his knee joint. With bad weather closing in and daylight fading, they needed to descend quickly to the glacier, about below. Yates proceeded to lower Simpson off the North Ridge using their two ropes tied together to make one rope, controlling the speed at which he lowered Simpson using a belay plate. This methodology meant that each lower had to proceed in three stages: two to descend each rope length, and one to negotiate the join between them. The steep open snow and ice slope to be descended did not have any belay points or other anchors from which Yates could secure himself to lower his companion so they created a stance by excavating a shallow cavity/seat where Yates could brace himself to take the strain of Simpson's weight on the rope and control the descent. Simpson was lowered 150 feet until the knot in the rope came up against the belay plate, at which point he had to take his weight off the rope by standing on his uninjured leg. This gave Yates enough slack to unclip the rope and rethread it back through the lowering device with the knot on the other side, following which he lowered Simpson a further 150 feet. Then when Simpson had made himself secure, Yates would downclimb to Simpson's position and the pair then created another stance from which the procedure could be repeated.