Touching The Void

Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb Siula Grande (6,344m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

Outline

Both climbers successfully summit the previously unclimbed West Face of Siula Grande in Peru. Simpson is injured during the descent after falling, resulting in a badly broken leg. The pair decide to lower Simpson with the help of ropes on the steep snowy slope, while an enormous storm rages on. Yates cannot see where he is lowering Simpson and the latter eventually drops off a cliff and is suspended by the rope in mid-air. Yates arrests his fall, but does not see the predicament his partner is in nor hear him because of the severity of the storm.