Simpson and Simon Yates climbed the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, the first ascent, and on the way down Simpson shattered his leg. Yates lowered him a thousand feet at a time until Simpson went over an overhang and hung in space, unable to be raised, slowly pulling Yates off the mountain, at which point Yates cut the rope. Simpson fell into a crevasse and then crawled and hopped for three days back to base camp with no water. Both men tell their halves. It’s the most argued-about decision in mountaineering and the book makes it impossible to condemn. I read the book in one night, then read it again slower, then read it again.
Touching the Void