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

by Simpson, Joe

• ISBN13: 9780060730550
• ISBN10: 0060730552
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-04
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death. The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave. How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(6)
Chris Bonington
Beneath the Mountain Lakes	15	(14)
Tempting Fate	29	(11)
Storm at the Summit	40	(18)
On the Edge	58	(10)
Disaster	68	(17)
The Final Choice	85	(22)
Shadows in the Ice	107	(10)
Silent Witness	117	(13)
In the Far Distance	130	(13)
Mind Games	143	(10)
A Land Without Pity	153	(14)
Time Running Out	167	(18)
Tears in the Night	185	(16)
Postscript	201	(2)
Ten Years On	203	(4)
Epilogue	207	(9)
Glossary	216	(2)
Acknowledgments	218