Talk:Touching the Void (book)

Last names, please
A note to editors of this and any similar articles: When referring to a person by one name, please use their last name, per usual encyclopedic style, not their first name. - dcljr (talk) 05:24, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

OK, article has been changed to reflect this. Luzingit (talk) 18:15, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Opinions?
The second paragraph of the "Controversy" section is total bunk. It is not based on fact, it is based on opinion; why then is it is an encyclopedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by LightingNerd (talk • contribs) 02:18, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the above - have tagged for NPOV 81.107.42.98 (talk) 22:49, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It has a place in an encyclopedia, opinions form the basis of the controversy, but that there is a controversy presumably is a fact? D. Talbot —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.27.145.127 (talk) 06:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but the manner in which the controversy is discussed shows a clear bias towards that side that Simon did the right thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.83.201.182 (talk) 23:05, 26 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The ideal thing to do for a knowledgable person would be to supplement the other side of the argument as well, so that both stand balanced. -- Syzygy (talk) 06:52, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

I've removed the 'controversy' section. This kind of opinionated conjecture has no place here without references. TungstenCarbide XI (talk) 03:46, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

The “controversy” surrounding Touching the Void is overstated. Shortly after their return, a wildly inaccurate article appeared in the Daily Mail claiming the Yates had tried to kill Simpson. A number of senior members of the Mount Everest Foundation misjudged this story and believed that it contained some element of truth. Since this body manages a lot of funding for climbing expeditions, this would effectively end Yates’ mountaineering career. In response to this, Simpson wrote an article that appeared in High magazine giving the correct version of events, which set the record straight. This is the extent of the controversy.Rubisco (talk) 15:03, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

This is a quote from an interview with Yates: "I did think that the film was economical with my side of the story. And the statement that I returned home to face criticism from many people in the British climbing community was somewhat wide of the truth. What actually happened was that when we got back, we spoke to a national newspaper and they did a bit of a hatchet job on me. Not surprisingly, a few people got upset with me. But that was very short-lived because Joe published an article in High magazine. Once people in the climbing community read Joe's story, I never had any problems from them."Rubisco (talk) 15:14, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Material from "Joe Simpson (mountaineer)" page & request for its review here; my strikethrus indicate material retained, in modified form, in Joe Simpson (mountaineer)
Content in the following box should be merged into the accompanying article if not redundant (with talk page & edit summary notations that it was previously part of Touching the Void), or a record made on this talk page about the judgment of redundancy being made. Please treat the box as accessory material, rather than an individual contrib, and feel free to strike thru (as i have) material already added or covered, preferably indicating in your corresponding (talk-pg) edit summary whether your strike thru is for previously added coverage, or addition at the time of striking thru. --Jerzy•t 07:11, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

== Touching the Void== He was made famous by his book Touching the Void (winner of the 1988 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and subsequently made into a movie ) in which he described a successful but disastrous and near-fatal attempt by himself and Simon Yates to climb Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The events of Touching the Void have now become a part of mountaineering folklore.

Joe, originally from Sheffield (although born in Kuala Lumpur where his father was stationed with the British Army), and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, were undertaking the first ascent of the West Face of a peak in the Peruvian Andes, Siula Grande. On the ridge down, they encountered difficult terrain, Joe fell and broke his leg, the tibia bone splitting his knee.

Simon Yates took it upon himself to lower Joe down the vast majority of the mountain. However, despite Simon's single-handed rescue attempt, a turn of events left Joe hanging over a steep overhanging ice face in the middle of a building blizzard. Yates was trying to support him from a desperate bucket belay hollowed from the snow, uncertain what exactly had happened and believing Joe to be dead. After hanging on for over an hour, Yates reached a point where he had to make a choice: Be pulled from the mountain into the abyss and certain death, or cut the rope. Yates cut the rope holding his partner and Joe fell into a gaping crevasse below, landing unexpectedly on a snow bridge. After cutting the rope Simon proceeded down the mountain, passing the crevasse and realizing what had happened, and unable to see Joe, thought that if he hadn't already died, he would have in the fall.

Despite his significant injuries, Joe lowered himself further into the crevasse and managed to find a way out. Suffering from hypothermia and dehydration, he then still faced the enormous task of crossing a glacier unroped, and with a broken leg. He crawled down the glacier and the moraines over a period of 3 1/2 days, all the way back to base camp, finding Simon and their traveling friend Richard Hawking literally hours before they were due to leave base camp.

''While i added the preceding box to this talk pg, additional strike-thrus within it do not constitute forgery (or falsification of my signed contrib).--Jerzy•t 07:11, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Abseiled? Really?
Really? Why use this pseudo-erudite obscure synonym for "rappelled," in an article about two British mountain climbers. Writer either trying to impress with his vast command of European languages, or forcing clicks to link - rappel. Dumbass. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.8.5.105 (talk) 15:16, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 'Abseil' is UK usage. We might well ask, "Why use 'rappel', a pseudo-erudite obscure synonym for 'abseil'?" Have a look at the abseiling page to help sort this issue out for yourself. Ericoides (talk) 08:47, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
 * @IP: Believe me, it looks / sounds as strange for a native German. But indeed "abseil" is the term used by the people in question - mountaineers, rescue personell etc. I don't really know how this came to be, historically, but there you are. -- DevSolar (talk) 17:20, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

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