In the harrowing mountain-climbing documentary movie, TOUCHING THE VOID, two English climbers take on an unclimbed route up Peru’s 21,000-foot mountain, Siula Grande. The route was steeper and more icy than they anticipated and they were exhausted when they finally reached the summit. As they began their descent, 25-year-old Joe Simpson fell and shattered his left leg so that his femur split and was shoved up over his knee, causing excruciating pain. They had no choice but to lower Joe down the sheer slope by rope.
Simon Yates carved out a small seat in the ice and lowered Joe to the end of the rope, then climbed down to him and repeated the process. On one such segment, the rope approached its end but did not go slack. Unknown to Simon, Joe had slid over the edge of a cliff and was hanging in the air. For an hour and a half Joe twisted, unable to raise himself back up to firm ground. Simon’s perch was precarious, and he was freezing. So he made a fateful decision – he cut the rope.
Joe dropped 150 feet into an icy crevasse. A small hole at the top of the crevasse showed where he had broken through the thin icy covering. He was in tremendous pain and unable to climb out of his prison; below him yawned a dark pit. Simon was nowhere to be seen and as Joe examined the rope he immediately knew what had happened.
His predicament made him furious, but he also examined his options. One option he rejected. As Joe himself said years later:
I was brought up as a devout Catholic. I had long since stopped
believing in God. I always wondered if things really hit the fan,
whether I would, under pressure, turn around and say a few Hail
Marys, and say, “Get me out of here.” It never once occurred to
me.
It really meant that I really don’t believe, and I really do think
that when you die, you die, and that’s it – there’s no afterlife.
There’s nothing.
Simpson’s only option was to descend deeper into the crevasse. Eventually he found himself on a “floor” but beneath him he could hear ice falling away. He also saw a glimmer of light and carefully crawled toward it. It was an opening to the outside. Now he found himself on a steep and fractured slope that melded into a glacier. With tremendous pain, and determination, Joe tumbled and crawled back to the base camp where his cries were finally heard. After many operations and years of healing, Joe Simpson again participated in mountain climbing.
Joe and Simon’s experience is a legend among mountain climbers. Joe’s determination to survive is truly inspiring. Is his rejection of God the realistic abandoning of a superstitious crutch, or merely a testament to Simpson’s pride, strength and willpower?