Welcome to Movie Shortens. Follow us today to a 2003 docudrama survival film called:
Touching The Void. Before we start, be aware: there are spoilers!
The goal of every alpinist is to reach heights that no one has ever climbed.
In 1985, Simon Yates and Joe Simpson attempted to be the first to climb the
6,244-meter-high West Face of Siula Grande. The cliff is located in the Peruvian Andes.
A friend of theirs said it would be very complicated. No one had yet succeeded.
When they leave for Peru, Joe is 25, Simon is 21, and they have
already done many climbs in the alps. In addition, Simon and Joe take with them
an inexperienced Richard Hawking, who stays at base camp to meet them on their return.
They arrive in an isolated area 2 km from the road.
They chose the alpine style, which is having a backpack
and climbing the mountain all at once. If something goes wrong, there is no support.
The journey exhilarates them. Joe and Simon say that when they climb mountains, they feel free;
there are no rules or limits. On the first day, they climb the
first 300 meters with great speed but reach a point where the cliff becomes more hostile
and the climb more complicated. In alpinism, you put all your trust
in your partner. If he falls and the anchors come off, you die with him.
At the end of the first day, the protagonists are satisfied, they have climbed fast enough,
and so they are convinced they will make it. It is easy to get dehydrated at those heights,
and the only way to drink is to melt snow. Unfortunately, it takes a long time,
so they do not drink as much as they need, which is 4-5 liters daily.
It becomes tiring to climb the ice because of its instability. The temperature drops a lot, and
avalanches of fresh snow slide down the wall. In the last 300 meters of that area, climbing
becomes a nightmare because of unstable snow. It takes them 6 hours to do 60 meters. They
continue to climb until sunset. At a certain point, Simon and Joe stop.
If they continued in those conditions, they would risk a lot, so they dug a hole in the snow.
Morning comes, the weather is good, and they can see better the route to climb.
They are afraid of getting stuck, knowing they cannot get down from where they climbed.
Simon and Joe go from the west face to the north ridge, and things seem to be
getting better. They are already pretty tired, but they don't want to give up.
They have finally reached the summit, and now comes the real challenge; in fact,
80% of accidents happen on the descent. They thought the ridge was easy to descend,
but it turned out to be quite tricky. It is more dangerous than they expected. They get
lost, and around them, they see only white. Simon does not realize that he is walking on a
jutting pile of snow. Suddenly, he falls and gets stuck, overwhelmed by snow and ice.
Despite this, he finds the ridge again. Earlier, they thought they would finish
in the day, but as the sun goes down, they are still there. Also, they run out of gas,
so they can’t melt the ice. Joe is confident. He climbs a cliff and
plants the ice ax. When climbing up, you must be careful of the sound the ice ax makes.
He realizes the sound is weird, so the cliff is not safe to use as support.
Joe hits the ice again and slips. It looks like he has broken his leg, but
he hopes it is just a muscle strain. Joe has an unbearable pain that he cannot put into words.
Joe realizes he is still standing at the top, and his leg is doomed. In alpinism,
if you break your leg, you're pretty much dead. Simon goes to him, and the rope comes loose.
In trying to get back on his feet, Joe realizes that his bone is broken.
The two climbers look into each other's eyes, and Simon understands the situation.
After that, they talk to each other, and Joe explains his problem, at which point
Simon speculates about going down alone in case things get bad.
Meanwhile, Richard realizes something has happened and suspects things have gone wrong.
The climbers discuss what to do, and Simon decides not to leave his partner.
The alpinists' code clearly states to never leave a companion behind, and Simon risks
his own life to take Joe with him. Joe's pain intensifies, but they have
to get down quickly. Despite his cries of pain, Joe has no alternatives.
Given the temperature, it would be necessary to create a hole
and dehydrate, but the gas is now gone. Joe thinks he has reached the end,
but suddenly he feels the slope getting faster and starts worrying.
He yells to Simon to stop, but he does not hear him.
Simon notices that the weight on the rope has increased, but he has no idea what has happened.
Joe is left with no chance of rescue. Simon continues to lower him to the knot
and tugs on the rope to tell him to lighten the weight, but nothing happens.
Given the situation, Joe's only option is to climb the rope.
He tries to stay as straight as possible but cannot handle the rope;
he can no longer feel his fingers. Simon is cold all over,
but he cannot get warm in that position. After that, to make matters worse, the fall of
Joe's lanyard. At that point, he is desperate, unable to climb with his bare hands.
Simon is not in much better shape. His position is becoming more and more untenable. The seat dug
out of the snow is crumbling as he goes along. He remembers he has a pocket knife in his backpack
and proceeds to grab it, then cut the rope. Joe falls onto a surface of thin ice and slips
into darkness. He is surprised that he is still alive.
Joe sees no way out and pulls on the rope to see if Simon is dead. The rope continues down
until it reaches him, and as soon as he sees the other end, he realizes it has been cut.
Simon digs a hole to warm himself and keeps thinking about Joe, feeling guilty.
Joe thinks he will die there but, at least, he is glad to know that Simon is alive.
He turns off his helmet flashlight, but the prospect of the crevasse is terrible,
and the darkness is driving him crazy. After a while, he turns it back on and loses
control in despair. Early in the morning,
Joe shouted his friend's name. Meanwhile, Simon gets dressed and is ready to leave his hole.
On the way down, he realizes what happened the night before and notices the crevasse that,
at first glance, seems bottomless. Both continue to call out to each other.
Unfortunately, Simon doesn’t check the crevasse, convinced that his companion is now dead.
Joe tries to climb up, but his attempt proves futile, as it is
not feasible with only one leg. Richard believes they are both dead
and thinks they would have rolled down if they had fallen. Unfortunately,
the cliff is not as smooth as Richard believes. Simon begins to walk down the glacier alone,
convinced that he too would die given the danger of the journey...
Once he reaches the cliff's end, he realizes he is safe.
Back to Joe, if he does not want to die there, he has to rappel down into the crevasse with all the
risks involved. He hopes there is a way out. Staying there would not have made things
any better, so he proceeds to rappel down despite his fear.
He does not look down, terrified by the thought that there is only emptiness down there.
Simon feels physically annihilated with thirst and thoughts plaguing him.
Richard finally sees him. He looks ghastly and does not see Joe,
so he asks him where he has gone. The mountaineer replies that he is dead
and tells him everything in detail, but Richard does not judge him.
Meanwhile, Joe has descended about 25 meters from where he had fixed the piton, and he thinks that
what he sees is the bottom of the crevasse. Near him, there is an uphill slope.
Looking farther down, he notices a hole through which sunlight passes;
this is the way out he is looking for. As he crawls, he realizes that the snow
is not solid; it is like a void underneath. If he breaks through it,
he will never reach the exit, but he has no choice now and proceeds relentlessly.
The pain is excruciating, and with each slide, he almost faints.
Joyful, he comes out of the hole and sees the beautiful sunny day. He feels reborn!
Looking at the glacier, however, he realizes that this is not even the beginning and that there are
still kilometers to go on hostile terrain. He is still very physically challenged,
not to mention severely dehydrated. Nevertheless, Simon doesn’t give up and
decides to set goals. For example, he travels a certain distance in a certain amount of time.
Joe finds Simon's footprints, thinking they would help him avoid the crevasses.
The next day it’s very sunny, and Simon's footprints are gone. Joe crawls and occasionally
gets up on his good leg to see the path. There is a very dangerous
section full of crevasses. In the meantime, Richard proposes to leave;
Simon, on the other hand, needs a few days to regain his strength and clear his thoughts.
Joe is dehydrated, and the camp is still far away, so he leaves the unnecessary weight behind.
Since he cannot crawl over the rocks, hopping is the only way to get over them.
He proceeds in this manner but falls at every step.
Despite the tremendous and obvious difficulties, his stubbornness allows
him to continue without giving up. Given Simon's poor health condition,
he and Richard decide to prepare to leave the following day.
Joe, meanwhile, sleeps lying on the rocks. The next day, Joe finds water and drinks
gallons of it, immediately feeling better. At one point, he sees footprints and is convinced
that they are his companions. Joe loses his wits that night,
no longer knowing what he is doing. At one point, a smell makes him come to his
senses, and he realizes he is near their tent. Joe calls Simon, but no one answers him.
Richard wakes up hearing the noises but thinks it is an animal.
Simon wakes up and hears it, too, immediately realizing that it was Joe calling him.
He springs into action, searches the area, and finally finds his companion.
It's unbelievable, but Joe is there in an unrecognizable condition.
They take him to the tent, and Joe thanks Simon. Joe reassures him by telling him that he, too,
would have cut that rope. Finally, they can go home, all three of them together.
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