Touching the Void (film)
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Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb Siula Grande (6,344 m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Critically acclaimed, it was listed in the PBS' 100 "Greatest" Documentaries of All Time. The Guardian described it as "the most successful documentary in British cinema history".
Synopsis
Both climbers successfully reach the summit of the previously unclimbed West Face of Siula Grande in Peru. Joe is injured during the descent after falling, resulting in a badly broken leg. The pair decide to lower Joe with the help of ropes on the steep snowy slope, while an enormous storm rages on. Simon cannot see where he is lowering Joe and Joe eventually drops off a cliff and is suspended by the rope in mid-air. Simon arrests his fall, but neither sees the predicament his partner is in nor hears him, due to the severity of the storm.
After about an hour, Simon realizes that there is little chance of recovery from this situation for either of them and he makes the decision to cut Joe's rope. After surviving a subzero and stormy night on the mountain, Simon descends, but cannot find his partner. He decides his partner is dead, and returns to the base camp alone, where he stays to recover.
Joe, who survived the fall but fell into a large crevasse, manages to lower himself further into the dark abyss despite his broken leg and find an exit leading to the base of the mountain. He then spends days crawling across glacier and rocks with his broken leg and other injuries. Delirious, he found and crawled into the climbers' base camp the night before the day in which Simon had decided to leave.
See also
- Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
