Text title – Touching the Void

Author/Director – Joe simpson – author, kevin macdonald – director

Text type – Novel/ Film 

Date read – 20/06/20

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The story is about when 3 guys decide to go climbing together in the peruvian andes and things go wrong as Joe breaks his leg and has to find his way out of a crevasse as Simon had to cut the rope and joe fell down into a crevasse and broke his leg so when Joe crawled all the way back to basecamp with a broken leg, Simon and Richard were at the basecamp planning on leaving the next day as Simon thought he had killed joe so when Joe crawled into basecamp to see if they were there he screamed their names they heard him they just did not know whereabouts he was as it was dark he then crawled a bit more up a little hill and then screamed their names again and they heard him and brought him back to basecamp. They were shocked to see joe alive as they thought he was dead because Simon told Richard that he had killed him in an accident as simon had no choice but to hold the rope and simon and richard did not want to tell joe’s parents that he had died so when joe came crawling into the base camp they were shocked. Simon also burned all of Joe’s clothes which he did not care about as he was happy to be alive they also got some mules to take Joe down the mountain easily as they got down off the mountain they took Joe to a hospital. And he had to go through six surgical operations and had to go into rehabilitation for 2 years. After that he went back to mountain climbing i think that this is interesting because not many people continue mountain climbing after a close death as Joe had in the story.

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The characters i found interesting in the story was Joe and Simon as they were good friends and then when they decided to make their way down the mountain Simon cut the rope which Joe was attached to and when Joe fell into a crevasse this is where i find Joe interesting as he managed to crawl all the way back to the base camp where Simon and Richard were. I found it interesting that Simon cut the rope as he knew Joe was attached to it so when he cut the rope i was shocked as he could have killed his friend if it were not for the crevasse i thought why would you cut the rope but Simon thought if i cut the rope only one of us dies but if i don’t cut the rope we both die so when Joe fell into the crevasse and survived i was shocked as i thought he might die because he fell down quite far and broke his leg which made walking a lot harder for Joe. As he had to find his way out of the crevasse and then after that he had to crawl all the way back to the base camp so in this story these were the characters that I found interesting. throughout the story there were many times where they had to go through many times but they pushed through it a lot of the time such as when Joe broke his leg on Siula Grande.

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I messages i took from the story was to never give up as you are going to go through many hard times in your life and you are going to have many struggles that you have to go through as Joe had a hard struggle when Simon cut the rope and Joe had to find and crawl his way back to the basecamp. This was a very hard situation he had to go through his accident happened in 1985 when he was only 25 if he did not find his way out of the crevasse or even survive the fall he would have died and not be able to tell his story of how he survived it, i thought that it was incredible that he managed to survive the fall and find his way out of the crevasse and crawl his way back to basecamp. As not many people survive when they fall into a crevasse as deep as Joe Simpson, he said a few swear words in the crevasse as he had broken his leg on the way down and because he didn’t know the way out of the crevasse but once he found his way out it was worth it in the end. But when he went to hospital he had to go through six surgical operations and spend two years in rehabilitation but after this he went back to mountain climbing Simon never climbed again after the accident Richard did not return back to mountain climbing either this shows us that Joe never gave up mountain climbing. He is now married and he is now 59 years old and his accident happened when he was only 25, Joe never gave up when he broke his leg and had to crawl his way back to basecamp so this shows us that he is willing to achieve his goal by crawling all the way to basecamp.

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The challenges that Joe, Simon and Richard had to deal with were when Simon had to cut the rope and Joe had to find and crawl his way back to basecamp and Richard did not want to call Joe’s parents and tell them that Joe had died. When Simon and Joe were climbing Siula Grande Simon cut the rope causing Joe to fall and break his leg then Joe when he fell into the crevasse he was swearing as he had a broken leg and he did not know where to get out from. Once he got out he crawled his way back to the basecamp where Simon and Richard were and Simon and Richard burned Joe’s clothes and they did not want to call Joe’s parents and tell them that Joe had died in a mountain climbing accident. So when he came crawling into basecamp they were shocked that he had actually survived the fall as he fell down 100 metres into the crevasse and then when he was in the crevasse he fell down 80 metres so he survived a 180 foot fall which not many people survive the people that survive are the lucky ones as it is a high fall.

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The title was appropriate as it meant to touch something that did not exist. The story is based on a true story and it is about 3 mountain climbers decide to climb Siula Grande near vertical western face in Peruvian andes and one of them managed to survive a long fall his name is Joe Simpson and after another climber by the name Simon Yates cut the rope. Joe fell 100 feet into the crevasse and then when he was in the crevasse he fell another 80 feet he survived a 180 foot fall which not many people survive as it is a long fall. After Joe decided to find a way out of the crevasse he got out and then crawled all the way to the base camp where Simon and Richard were. when they saw Joe had survived with a broken leg they were shocked as they thought that he had died they were also relieved as they did not want to call his parents and tell them that their son Joe had died. Simon also told Joe that he had burned his clothes and Joe did not care that he burned his clothes as Joe was just happy to be alive after his accident.

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I would recommend this book to everyone because to tell them to never give up as Joe never gave up when he managed to survive a fall into the crevasse and survive with a broken leg which he had to go through six surgical operations and two years in rehabilitation. After this Simon and Richard never returned to mountain climbing again but Joe continued to climb as he never wanted to give up his passion in mountain climbing because he loved climbing so much. He also wanted to prove people that he was going to keep climbing after he broke his leg in 1985 so Joe decided to keep climbing he lost contact with Simon and Richard. When they filmed Touching the Void film Joe, Simon and Richard reunited again but after that Joe lost contact with them again after this Joe later got married he is now 59 years old Simon is now 57. They have not seen each other since they last saw each other in 2002-2003 when they were filming touching the void. This book is great if you like adventures and true stories as there were many things that happened that led up to Joe’s injury. Where he fell 100 feet to the crevasse and another 80 feet when he was in the crevasse. This caused Joe to break a leg as Simon cut the rope and left Joe for dead after he could not see Joe in the crevasse so Joe had to find his way out of the crevasse and crawl all the way back to base camp.