TOUCHING THE VOID : The Harrowing First Person Account of One Man's Miraculous Survival

Joe Simpson; (Chris Bonington, Foreword)

ISBN 10: 0060916540 / ISBN 13: 9780060916541

Published by Perrenial/Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1990

About this Item

Text/BRAND NEW, softcover w/a whisper of shelfwear to upper back corner tip. Memoir of English mountaineer Joe Simpson's (1960 -) successful but disastrous 1985 ascent of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. The book is dedicated to his climbing partner Simon Yates (1963 -) who did not survive the descent from the summit. This epic account of both triumph & suffering, friendship & loss of, won the 1988 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and was adapted to film.

Seller Inventory # 009410

Bibliographic Details

• Title: TOUCHING THE VOID : The Harrowing First Person Account of One Man's Miraculous Survival
• Publisher: Perrenial/Harper & Row, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060916540
• ISBN 13: 9780060916541
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: Joe Simpson; Simon Yates; & Richard Hawking (Photographers)
• Edition: First Edition, First Printing
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: None as Issued
• Seller catalogs:
  • Tzqx
  • Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
  • Adventure, Expeditions

About this title

Synopsis

"A truly astounding account of suffering and fortitude."
--The Times (London)

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 hopped, hobbled, and crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching the base hours before Yates had planned to break camp.

How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival; a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

"Told with lyrical quality and stunning immediacy, Touching the Void transcends its genre and becomes accessible to readers who have never had any desire to climb a glacier."
--New York Newsday

"A gripping narrative that should excite armchair adventurers everywhere."
--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Simpson touches a nerve of the mountaineering community and the hearts of others."
--Los Angeles Times

"Riveting, even compulsive reading."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

About the Author

Joe Simpson is the author of several bestselling books, of which the first, Touching the Void, won both the NCR Award and the Boardman Tasker Award. His later books are This Game of Ghosts, Storms of Silence, Dark Shadows Falling, The Beckoning Silence and a novel, The Water People.