One of the absolute classics of mountaineering- a document of withness of
compulsion. 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 and his climbing partner, 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.
