Touching the Void

In June 1985, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two young but experienced climbers, set out to ascend the unclimbed West Face of the remote 21,000 ft Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They managed to achieve the summit before disaster struck, leaving Simon Yates with an agonising decision to make - to cut the rope holding Joe or to surely die with him. A few days later Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead. For three days he wrestled with guilt. Then a cry in the night woke them and they found Joe, badly injured, crawling through the snowstorm in a delirium. Joe's struggle for survival and the seemingly impossible journey he was forced to make, is not only an epic tale of endurance but also an outstanding literary achievement.