February’s book review “Touching The Void by Joe Simpson”
This true story first published in 1988 is about a shocking mountaineering accident in Peru that happened in August of 1985. I recall reading commentary letters in climbing and mountaineering magazines about the incident, but this is now 33 years removed. In addition, the book was turned into a fairly successful documentary style movie in 2003, something that I watched over ten years ago. Having just traveled in Peru this last summer to areas very close, within 18 kilometers, to mountains where this event happened it has renewed my interest in the details and therefore I have sought out this topic to read for my fist 2019 book review on South America to the World. It is likewise fitting because of my two decade interest in the Cordillera Blanca mountains and in-depth research in many aspect of Peru.
Additional full disclosure is required to understand my perspective on this mountaineering accident, I have 25 years experience in rock climbing, but little mountaineering experience that is limited to basic ascents in the Cascades, and few trips out doing short ice climbs. I am thoroughly familiar with all climbing terminology in the book. My work in geology and mineral exploration has taken me numerous times to Peru, my travel there is extensive, frequently going up to the typical Andean plateau elevations of 4,500 to 5,000 meters above sea level. Just six months ago I tent camped in the Cordillera Occidental at 4,900 meters elevation at place about 40 kilometers west of the summit described by Joe Simpson. I can appreciate the thin air and very cold temperatures, and at the same time understand the weather patterns they describe in the book. Both are something I contend with planning field logistics, only in Touching the Void they push it to the ultimate extreme, going above 6,000 meters elevation while having no previous experience in Peru.
This story also comes somewhat closer to my Peruvian wife’s history because her mother, grandmother, and many uncles lived in the small town of Chiquian, which one of the northern approach routes to the Cordillera Huayhuash, the mountain range in which this tale plays out. The Cordillera Huayhuash is the lesser southern range or summit group that lies south of the higher and more robust mountain belt of the Cordillera Blanca. The Cordillera Blanca, and the main town along its western flanks, Huaraz, is an international mountaineers destination. The town of Huaraz is South America’s equivalent in some ways to Kathmandu. This is important background information while reading the book, because in the very first chapter it was clear that the two alpinists Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were very experienced in the Alps, but never climbed in Peru before. Instead of heading to the mainstream mountaineering area of the Cordillera Blanca, they went directly into a lesser, and in many ways more remote, less climbed areas in the Huayhuash. Furthermore, when camping at Lake Sarapacocha, elevation 4,493 meters (14,740 feet), Mr. Simpson states that he had never been above 18,000 feet (5,486 meters), and they were there setting themselves up for a bid on a new route, meaning it had never climbed it before, going up the extremely rugged and steep ice and snow-coated mountain of Siula Grande, elevation 6,344 m (20,813 feet). The lack of previous experience climbing in Peru mountains, and going to higher elevations than Mr. Simpson has ever climbed before, combined with tackling a very serious first ascent sets the stage for the injuries, close calls with death, and brutal decisions that make this a gripping story.
And still in the first chapter, much is left unstated. What motivated them to climb in Peru? It slowly comes out in the story the climbers drive to claim a first ascent was important. Moreover, it turns out that Mr. Simpson had not done any previous first ascents, no practice of such before tackling a very dangerous mountain. I have four climbers guides to the Cordillera Blanca in my home library, and not one of them cover summits in the Cordillera Huayhuash. So other logistical questions quickly raced through my mind reading the very first chapter. Where did they learn of this mountain? What maps did they have or reference consulted? There surely must have been something before the two of them showed up in Lima with packs full of climbing gear. Chapter one’s only explanation on the background incentive to spend money on travel costs and time is mention of one Al Rouse in their hometown giving them some verbal recommendations. Surely there must have been more, but these details are left out, just as the book is equally vague on their meeting with another traveler in Lima that joins their trip. Being very familiar with Lima, of course I wondered where they stayed at and how long they were there? And how they arranged transport to the Cordillera Huayhuash, and which route they took to access the glacial valley at the west face of Siula Grande? Because Mr. Simpson does not provide this background either, I put it together in Google Earth, marking the likely town of Huayllapa, then measuring off the 15-kilometer trek into their base camp at Laguna Sarapacocha. These are concerns climbers are well aware of, if something happens, how far is it to get help? This must surely been part of the reason for enlisting the non-climber camp watcher named Richard. Touching the Void is well written, short book of two hundred pages, that reads fast, but this in part because it skips steps and leaves information out.
Other very important contextual data to place this event in proper history of Peru- 1985 is five years after the start Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) communistic terrorism. Peru was not a place for tourism, the place was getting very dangerous, ugly. The terrorism would go on for just over a decade, it is something my wife’s family lived through, and something I have heard plenty of grim tales about having spent nine months in the very center of where it all began in post-conflict 1999. Hidden pockets of terrorist still lurk in the jungles and remote mountain villages of Peru today. To step into a difficult first ascent was not enough, this climbing venture did so when the government was being assaulted, and normal services in the country were not fully functioning. The worst times came around 1985 when electricity for the city of Lima was cut off in the month of June. The car bombs and terrorist activities were underway and certainly in the world news, and yet they still came to Peru to climb and were at the base of their climb in August.
August is the preferred drier month in Peru for climbing. It is a rare day in the Cordillera Blanca that the mountains retain a blue sky. They typically develop large billowing storm clouds from the extremely moist Amazon atmosphere. I watched this everyday from June through August in 1998 while mapping the Cordillera Negra. Everyday I could see across the Callejon de Huaylas valley to the higher white-capped summits. Reading Mr. Simpson’s account of the storms building everyday is exactly as it happens in these mountains.
The page and half forward by Chris Bonington in the 2004 second edition of the book really does not due justice to the above omitted logistical concerns that partially contributed to the tragic outcomes. The climbing pair spent a few days doing reconnaissance of the west face, but apparently did not come with a clear photograph for planning their attack route up the mountain. The reconnaissance reads as being too short, and not enough time being spent acclimatizing to the elevation before making the ascent. Was this the over confidence of young strong climbers? Or did Mr. Simpson incompletely relate their days before the climb?
The climb description is more detailed, providing dramatic sense of how unnerving the conditions were, and how they equally quickly got in to something more serious than they were prepared for. The approach from base camp up the glacier to the base of the wall requires a gain of 900 meters over very convoluted ice riddled with crevasses. The main wall of Siula Grande is a 1,105 meter vertical gain. Mere uphill walking above 4,600 meters elevation without acclimatization is difficult.
Without giving any spoilers on the grim details, the main accident, it was clear from the events on the climb and the late afternoon descent in a storm that many potential fatal close calls had to eventually catch up with the pair. And when it did, fate came in harshly, turning the story from technical mountaineering to life and death decisions that had the attention of the world’s climbing community for ethical reasons. The byline for Touching the Void reads “the True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival” which reads untrue, because this is a tale of both climbers surviving- one had it worse than the other, and option-less betrayal between partners is just as much centerpiece in this story as the deep pain of survival that saw both climbers leave the mountain alive.
To this day, the snowy mountains of Peru claims lives nearly every year. Equally important, climbing accidents remain frequent the descents when the bodies are tired and the weather has deteriorated. Both climbers were very fortunate to have made it alive off of Siula Grande. “Touching the Void” should be a must read for those practicing Andinismo, and it conveys the sense of being there for the climbing layman. I recommend the book for a good read while highlighting the situation largely arose through inadequate in-country practice, preparation, and climbing logistics. It really is a guide on what not to do when climbing a mountain- even if you are not a mountaineer the poignant human nature lessons are haunting.
James M. Wise- February, 2019
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