Touching Emptiness

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

I have never been a fan of mountaineering. I understand one thing - climbers are an example of courage and recklessness. Perhaps, with my passion for alpine skiing and freediving, in my heart I even envy them a little, and also have a bit of recklessness, but caution still prevails in me. But now it’s not about me.

The other day, on the Internet, I came across a documentary film based on Joe Simpson's book "Touching the Void." Joe Simpson, an English climber and writer, talks about how in 1985 he and his friend Simon Yates conquered Siula Grande, the famous six-thousander in the Peruvian Andes. This ascent has become a mountaineering legend. Experienced climbers climbed the western, almost steep slope. They made it safely to the top, but the real test awaited them when they returned down. On the descent, Simpson, during the fall, broke the tibia, which, moving, shattered the knee. At this height, any injury can be fatal. Descent is often more difficult than ascent, and climbers need courage and willpower in order to descend, therefore, sometimes, there is no question of saving the victim.

Yates and Simpson had been friends for many years, so despite the seriousness of the situation, Yates made the decision that he would not leave his friend to die. Simpson began the descent with the help of his companion, who, being higher, lowered him on a rope. Suddenly the snow collapsed under him and Simpson fell off a sheer cliff, and so dangled in the air on a rope, freezing in sub-zero temperatures and winds.

Yates struggled for over an hour, sliding lower and lower under the weight of the taut rope, before he made the most difficult decision of his life - to cut the rope. “I couldn't help it, and I was furious at my own helplessness,” Yates recalls.

Simpson, having flown about fifty meters, hit the ice bridge, broke it with his weight, and ended up on a narrow snowy ledge in the depths of the cleft. Exhausted, in great pain, he reeled up the rope tied to himself, and realized that Yates had cut it.

In the morning, Yates, descending and seeing a deep crevice, decided that his friend was dead, and returned to camp alone. He was exhausted, and he felt incredible guilt.

Meanwhile, in a deep cleft, Simpson thought about his scanty chances. He could not climb up, and below the deep blackness of the cleft gaped. “I behaved like a child, I sobbed and cried, I did not think that I would get to this …” - recalls Joe. But he was 25 years old, and he had plans to conquer the whole world, and death was not part of his plans. Many would probably give up, curl up in the snow and slowly perish from the cold. But Simpson did the unthinkable! After analyzing his capabilities, Simpson began to descend into the darkness of the cleft. How can you explain his act? In a hopeless situation, the only way to survive is to keep making decisions. “You need to decide something, even if the decision is wrong, you need to try. Even if further death. But I amuse myself with the hope that I can get out, or at least try - I'm still alive. " Simpson did not begin to tie a knot at the end of the rope, because he could not hang for a long time - "it would be better if death would be quick if the rope is not enough."

Incredibly, Joe managed to find a place in the crevasse where the exit to the slope turned out to be. And for three long days, he alone, seriously wounded, went downstairs. “I, with a broken leg, suffering from pain and then dehydration, am going to pass the glacier … It never happens. It's physically impossible,”Joe recalls.

“I realized that it is better to set intermediate goals for yourself. So, let's try to crawl to that crevice in 20 minutes …”- Simpson followed Yeats' tracks he found, realizing that until he stumbled upon a crevasse where the footprints would break off, he was not in danger. Only snow. Therefore, when it snowed, Joe decided to move at night, fearing to lose Simon's tracks. In the morning, the traces disappeared …

Simpson crawled into the camp on the brink of death, delirious, and no longer hoping to find anyone there. But, grief-stricken, Yates delayed all the time to leave - and it was a miracle. Joe Simpson's incredible descent of Siula Grande is considered one of the most amazing feats in mountaineering history.

And, although my today's publication is not entirely from the field of psychology, I want to tell you, friends - even if it hurts, is difficult, or everything is hopeless, set yourself intermediate goals, and don't stop making decisions!

Thank you for attention.

All the best!