Touching The Void - Kevin Macdonald
This docu-drama follows Simon Yates and Joe Simpson’s attempt at the unclimbable face of a mountain in Peru. Going into this knowing nothing about them was a really good way to experience the film.
This climb is famous so the way it is filmed will be great for everyone who knows about it already. The film opens with climbs talking about snow types and climbing techniques.
It cuts back and forth between shots of climbing and two talking heads: Joe and Simon.
Every line in the opening makes you feel more and more worried about how crazy these two guys are. They are young twenty-five and twenty-one.
Simon had been moving towards climbing mountains or routes that had never been climbed before. Joe was much keener to climb this slope than Simon was but they had been a team for ages.
They then talk about their style of climbing – Alpine Style.
In this style of climbing you don’t set up different camps along the way so you have a line of retreat with supplies.
You carry everything with you from base camp so you have to do it all in one go. They are tied together so are completely reliant on each other.
As you get higher getting water required by boiling snow means you have to carry fuel with you to melt it. The climb up wasn’t too bad until they got near the summit and then we see why no one has done this.
They are called Peruvian Flutings. It’s where the powder sits on the ridges and overhangs causing incredibly unstable footing.
The climbers were amazed that the powder didn’t avalanche like it does in the Alps. But here it just builds up at the top and is sculpted by the wind but remains powder.
Once they make it to the ridge through this stuff they are exhausted and out of fuel to make water and almost can’t be bothered to climb to the top – but they do.
Then the climb down is almost worse than up because they cannot see where they are on the ridge and if they are on top of one of the unstable flutings or not.
Climbing down also had several ice walls that they needed to climb down and up to regain the ridge.
As Joe climbs down one of these the ice cracks and he plummets to the bottom of the wall, breaking his leg. The cloud cover breaks and he can see how high they still are and he knows he is going to die.
Simon gets to him but refuses to leave him – meaning that they are both likely to die. This discussion doesn’t happen but he immediately moves into setting up to lower Joe down.
They set up all of their rope into a single length which meant that when they reached the point where it was tied together Joe needed to put slack in the rope so that the knot could be fed through the equipment and Simon could keep lowering him.
Everything is going remarkably well despite the agony you can see Joe is in. Then Joe is lowered over the edge of an overhang.
Simon has no idea as he is much further up the mountain. He is sitting there waiting for Joe to take his weight off the rope which he also, obviously cannot do.
Joe looks down and sees that he is hanging over a crevasse. So he starts screaming at Simon to stop.
Simon cannot hear anything and sits there holding the rope in the unstable powder knowing that soon he is going to be pulled off the mountain and they will both die.
So Simon cuts the rope. Joe falls into the crevasse. Simon continues climbing down and reaches the crevasse and is horrified to see that this is where he would have dropped Joe.
He can see no sign of him so continues towards base camp – still fairly certain that he will die as well.
But Joe has survived. He cannot climb up so he decides to climb down. It is precarious in the dark but he manages to climb out of the crevasse but still has days of travel left to go to base camp on his broken leg.
I found the rest of the movie from here too intense.
There is just too much footage of delirious Joe pulling himself through the snow and then stumbling through the rocks towards base camp in utter pain.
There is some nice editing between what is happening at base camp and what is happening with Joe which leads us to believe that they may have left when Joe arrives.
They are still there. Everyone survives. Joe never questions Simon’s decision to cut the rope and says it is exactly what he would have done.
I find it truly amazing that they both still climb. It is also unfortunate that Simon was maligned after his impossible decision.
It’s a fascinating film up until Joe gets out of the crevasse.
Thanks for an amazing review. It sounds like an exhilarating and must watch movie.
Thanks for the review, Colin.
I just wanted to let you know that you are most welcome. Be prepared for the intensity of the final act. It was a bit much for me but you may enjoy it.