Touching the Void

TOUCHING THE VOID tells the true story of 20-somethings Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, who set out to be the first climbers ever to climb the west face of the 21,000-foot Siula Grande in the Andes. They make it to the top, but on the way down Simpson falls and shatters his leg. Yates risks his own life to help Simpson descend, lowering him 150 feet at a time with a rope holding them together. But when Simpson falls again and Yates can't see or hear him, the rope that connected them was pulling Yates to certain death. Yates, believing Simpson must be dead, cuts the rope. He searches for Simpson with no luck and barely makes it back to base camp. Meanwhile, over the next four days Simpson faces certain death but refuses to give up. Simpson fell into a 150-foot crevasse. By going down further into the crevasse instead of trying to climb out of it, he manages to escape. Facing a series of obstacles that would challenge a mythological hero, Simpson perseveres. Even when he accepts that death was inevitable, he still kept going because "I didn't want to die alone." At times angry, terrified, and delirious, he keeps trying anything and everything he could think of to get back home.