Touching the Void
You will have two questions to choose from in the real exam. Make sure you choose one
quickly, and don’t change your mind after ten minutes. Just do it. Then, plan your answer.
If you don’t plan your answer you will probably run out of steam half-way through the
answer, and it will lack structure. You can plan your answer any way you wish – spiderdiagram, listing the subject of your paragraphs, or a flow diagram. Just make sure you write
the main points of your response, and ensure that they directly relate to the question.
ONLY ANSWER ONE QUESTION FROM THE CHOICE OF TWO ON THIS BOOK. If you write
responses for both, then you deserve the poor mark you will undoubtedly receive.
In terms of what you will be asked to write about –
English Literature is concerned with how writers achieve their effects. It covers:
- How characters / settings are presented
- Themes and issues
- Wider historical and social background
- Use of language, structure and form to create meaning for a reader.
Of these, use of language is probably the most vital, as it relates to all the other points.
You should be aware of the kinds of techniques Joe Simpson uses in his writing – for
example, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, flashbacks, stream of consciousness narrative,
switching between past/present tense, the use of distressing verbs and adjectives, and
differing sentence lengths.
Remember the themes, and refer to them in your answer:
Moral Dilemma – Simon’s choice to cut the rope.
Adventure – why do people choose to do extreme sports?
Danger – linked to adventure – why do people put themselves in danger voluntarily?
Friendship – the importance of Joe and Simon’s bond
Isolation – Joe’s struggle to cope on his own.
Nature – the personification of the mountains, and nature’s lack of mercy.
Survival/Bravery – the extraordinary ability of human nature to survive, physically and
mentally.
Chapter One – Beneath The Mountain Lakes
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Sets the scene at the bottom of Siula Grande.
Describes the isolation and beauty of the natural surroundings.
Introduces Simon and Richard.
Discusses the weather and the difficulty on the practice climbs due to poor weather.
This chapter is important for showing you how isolated the three men are. They are 28
miles away from the nearest village, which in turn is an 80 mile bus journey up twisting
mountain valleys. The references to the height of Siula Grande and the West Face they
intend to climb show just how ambitious they are. The references to Richard’s experiences
in Africa show just how well-travelled they are, and how they live life on the edge
metaphorically, as well as sometimes literally. The references to the weather and the
storms foreshadow some of the problems they are likely to face on the climb. Joe makes
reference to his journal, showing he is a reflective person with a sense of creativity, whilst
Simon is presented as ‘easy-going’ and ‘carefree’.
In this chapter we see the first mixture of excitement and danger which appear throughout
the book. Words such as ‘spectacular’, ‘exhilarating’, ‘extravagant’ and ‘relished’ juxtapose
with more dangerous language such as ‘menacingly remote’, ‘frighteningly’, ‘anxiously’,
‘formidable’, ‘freezing’, ‘treacherous’ and ‘precariously’.
Key quotations:
‘There is a peculiar anonymity about being in tents’. (p.15).
‘I relished this moment when I could be truly alone.’ (p.16).
’80 heart-stopping miles... forty-six people were crammed into a ramshackle vehicle
designed to carry twenty-two’ (p.17).
‘It feels menacingly remote and exhilarating at the same time’ (p.18)
‘He was an easy friend: dependable, sincere, ready to see life as a joke.’ (p.19)
‘There would be no-one to intrude or come to our rescue.’ (p.21
‘... frighteningly thin edges of snowy cornice and flutings which hung precariously over the
edge of the West Face.’ (p.22)
‘We know what we’re doing, and if something goes wrong there is nothing whatever you
can do.’ (p.26)
‘It would be a freezing early-morning start tomorrow’ (p.28)
Chapter Two – Tempting Fate
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Joe describes the beginning of the climb
He describes climbing and how much he enjoys it
They see dangerous ice cornices overhanging the West Face
There is a rock fall
They are forced to climb in the dark
They find a snow hole
Joe recounts a story (flashback) about falling whilst sleeping
This chapter shows you the risks and enjoyment that Joe and Simon get from climbing. The
chapter is notable for its use of stream-of-consciousness narrative in two paragraphs (p.30
and p.34) ; one showing excitement, and one in a more panicked state. It switches from
past to present tense, and uses lots of verbs to explain the actions of the climb. It draws us
in to the world of climbing, allowing us to feel part of it, when it is going well, and also when
it becomes more risky.
The writer is also keen to use technical climbing and mountain vocabulary, in order to keep
the pace (so he doesn’t have to explain everything),and also to show how much of an expert
he is. It is also possible his primary audience is the climbing community, or even that he
wrote the book primarily for himself. Terms include ‘bivouac’, ‘couloir’, ‘cornice’, ‘ice
screw’, ‘col’, ‘flutings’.
The flashback shows that, despite a traumatic accident, Joe is willing to keep climbing,
showing us a tremendous passion and mental strength; his friend lost his passion for
climbing as a result of the accident. Interestingly, Joe wants to end the chapter on a joke
about food rather than finish on a low note, either showing his denial or his willingness to
move on.
Again the writer contrasts (juxtaposes) positive and negative language to illustrate the fine
line between triumph and disaster.
Key quotations:
‘Head down, keep looking at your feet, swing, swing, hop, look at your feet, swing, swing’ (p.
30)
‘Looming over, with my stomach clenched, and a sharp strong sense of danger, I enjoyed
the feeling’ (p.31)
‘ “Jesus! This is overhanging, and the ice is terrible!”’ (p.34).
‘Hit hard. Hit again – that’s it, now the hammer. Look at your feet. Can’t see them.’ (p.34)
‘At last we fell silent. A terrible fear and insecurity had taken over our boisterous reaction
to the unimaginable event’ (p.38).
Chapter Three – Storm at the Summit
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Joe and Simon meet a barrier of seracs
Simon falls a short way and Joe injures his mouth
Joe admits to being afraid when the gully becomes difficult
They bivi overnight when it is clear they won’t make the summit
They struggle up the flutings
They reach the summit
A storm overtakes them, and Simon falls a short way.
This chapter shows the difficulty of their situation, and the tension rising continuously as
they become more aware of the danger they’re in. Small errors can lead to disaster this
high up, and Joe and Simon both have narrow escapes. Simon doesn’t take his fall seriously,
shouting at Joe ‘I’ve found the ridge’ in a joking manner. Joe is more nervous, and becomes
‘gripped’ on dangerous sections of the ridge, finding himself unable to move.
The chapter is notable as it fails to revel in the triumph of reaching the summit. Joe reflects
on this at the top, and suggests that he is feeling ‘the usual anticlimax’, and he describes the
‘vicious circle’ which forces him to come up with new and more dangerous ambitions as he
conquers more and more difficult climbs. It illustrates that his passion is not necessarily in
reaching the summit, but the process of climbing itself.
The rope between them is mentioned by Joe many times in this chapter; it is a metaphor for
the friendship and trust between them, and integral to their survival.
Key quotations:
‘”Your mouth is bleeding,” he said flatly. “It’s nothing. It was my fault anyway.”’ (p. 45)
‘I couldn’t shake off the fear. I was gripped’ (p. 46).
‘If you succeed with one dream, you come back to square one and it’s not long before
you’re conjuring up another, slightly harder, a bit more ambitious – a bit more dangerous’
(p. 53).
‘He set off, and after a short time I had only the ropes moving through my hands to show
me he was there’ (p. 55)
‘He was calmer now, but I shivered at the thought of what would have happened if I had
moved up with him – it would have taken both of us.’ (p. 56).
Chapter Four – On The Edge
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Joe and Simon continue to walk across the damaged ridge
Joe crashes into Simon, and they share an angry exchange.
They climb in the dark before digging a snow hole
Joe recounts how Simon witnessed two Japanese climbers fall to their death
They wake next morning with stores for only one more meal.
This chapter foreshadows why the climb is destined to go badly wrong. The two men are
starting to squabble; the verbs Joe uses to describe the climb become more panicked as the
two men start to panic themselves. The use of strong swearing is relevant – using this
strong language sparingly shows just how anxious and worried they are. Additionally, Joe is
recounting the very worst that can happen when he describes the fate of the Japanese
climbers, who both fell to their deaths roped together. The fact that Simon continued to
climb after witnessing such an event tells us of his mental strength.
The gas running out is symbolic. It shows that the men didn’t really plan properly, or were
too ambitious about what they might achieve in a short space of time. The gas can stand as
a metaphor for their chances of survival in the same way the rope symbolises their
friendship.
The chapter title is literally true, as they are on the edge of the ridge, however it is also
metaphorical. They are on the edge of their abilities, on the edge of what is possible for
humans to achieve, and on the edge of their patience with each other. It is the chapter title
which is closest related to the book’s title - Touching the Void. There is an emptiness which
threatens to take them, and they are too close to it.
Key quotations:
‘Anxiety had returned with a vengeance’ (p. 58)
‘Jesus!... I... Oh shit! I thought we’d had it ... this is fucking stupid!’ (p. 59)
‘He was still bristling with anger at my lack of cooperation’ (p.62).
‘...they were shocked to hear a ghastly screaming from below – the chilling sounds of
someone in agony, desperately alone and terrified’ (p.63)
‘...falling away below it the West Face plunged thousands of feet down into the glacier’
(p.66)
‘My legs had gone to sudden jelly, quivering, and it took a long time for the reaction to
fade.’ (p.67).
Chapter Five – Disaster
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Joe breaks his leg after falling off the ice wall
Simon comes down, and instantly understands that Joe will probably die
Nonetheless, they arrange a method of lowering Joe down the slope of the
mountain, 300ft at a time.
They continue dangerously into the night.
This is clearly one of the chapters with the most drama, as Joe vividly and graphically
describes the horror and pain of breaking his leg. This is also the first time we see Simon’s
point of view, and the chapter has a ‘split-narrative’. This is vitally important, as we see the
story now from both sides. This will become more important later on, as we see why it is
important for Simon to have his say on what happened.
Important points to think about in this chapter include the descriptive language Joe uses to
describe firstly the pain in his knee, and also the mental panic he feels – he knows now that
death is extremely likely. Take note of the graphic adjectives – ‘grotesque’, ‘burning’, as
well as the strong verbs – some literal, some metaphorical: ‘splitting’, ‘flooding’, ‘ragged’,
‘exploded’, ‘grated’, ‘grinding’.
Look also at Simon’s matter-of-fact response – he automatically accepts that Joe will
probably die. You should ask why it is, then, that Simon does so much to help Joe down the
mountain – he could easily have gone off ‘to get help’, but instead he heroically lowers Joe
down the mountain, on into the dark of night. All this, with frostbitten fingers. You should
consider Simon’s motivations, and his own character, and look carefully at Simon’s point of
view in this chapter and later.
Key quotations:
‘I felt a shattering blow in my knee, felt bones splitting, and screamed.’ (p. 72)
‘My knee exploded. Bone grated, and the fireball rushed from groin to knee.’ (p.72)
‘In an instant an uncrossable gap had come between us and we were no longer a team
working together.’ (p.75)
‘It was all totally rational. I knew where we were, I took everything around me instantly, and
knew that he was dead.’ (p.76)
‘... death rushed back to being a vague possibility rather than the inevitable fact’ (p. 81)
Chapter Six – The Final Choice
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Simon unwittingly lowers Joe off the edge of a cliff
Joe tries to get the weight off the rope, but fails to pull himself up
He waits to die in the cold, as Simon waits, struggling to hold on to Joe
As Simon is slowly being pulled off the mountain side, he quickly takes the decision
to cut the rope.
Simon, thinking he has killed Joe, makes a snow hole and suffers a traumatic night.
This is the crux of the entire book, as Simon makes the controversial decision to cut the
rope. Some say that the rope is such a powerful symbol of friendship and trust that he
should never have cut the rope, no matter how difficult the situation was. However, we can
see from Simon’s narrative that the situation was desperate, and later we see how he saved
Joe’s life as well as his own – failing to cut the rope would have led to both their deaths.
Interestingly, when Simon recalls his decision to cut the rope he does not mention Joe, or
the moral dilemma that would be raised by cutting the rope. Instead, all attention is given
to the physical struggle and practicalities of getting his knife from his bag and getting the
rope cut. Simon later congratulates himself on being driven by reason rather than emotion,
but has a real mixture of emotions once he is safely in a snow hole.
The split narrative raises further tension in this chapter, as each man is in a situation where
he knows nothing of the other’s struggles. Simon is unaware where Joe is, and Joe is
unaware that Simon is cutting the rope. Ending on Simon’s point of view is key to the
almost-literal cliffhanger ending to the chapter – the reader is left with no knowledge of
what happens to Joe, the same as Simon.
You should think carefully about Simon’s state of mind during the night and in the morning –
he feels shame and guilt, and personifies his surroundings, as he feels he is being watched
and judged by the mountains and the sky. The reference to religion is continued where he
makes reference to ‘dress(ing) like a priest before mass’.
Additionally, think about the continued vivid language Joe uses to describe his pain of being
lowered down so quickly – at stages he personifies his knee and gives it a voice of its own.
Key quotations:
‘parts within the joint seemed to shear past each other with a sickening gristly crunch.’ (p.
86)
‘We had locked ourselves into a grim struggle, my part was pain-wracked, Simon’s an
endless physical battle to get me down almost 3000ft without a break.’ (p. 89)
‘I thought of it (the cold) as something living; something which lived crawling into my body’
(p. 98)
‘I hung still, and waited for it to happen. Any minute. Any minute.’ (p. 100)
‘The knife! The thought came out of nowhere. Of course, the knife. Be quick, come on, get
it.’(p. 102).
‘I was alive, and for a moment that was all I could think about’ (p. 103)
‘I was actually pleased that I had been strong enough to cut the rope’ (p. 105)
‘Plagued with endless thoughts that turned madly upon themselves in vicious circles, sleep
was impossible.’
‘I wanted to question myself. It seemed necessary to prosecute myself, and to prove that I
had been wrong.’
‘I felt watched. Something in the summits and ridges looked down on me and waited.’ (p.
106).
Chapter Seven – Shadows in the Ice
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Joe hangs on the end of the rope waiting to die
He notices the beauty of the stars
He falls, expecting to die on impact
He is delighted, then petrified to find that he is still alive, but caught in a cave.
He finds out the rope was cut, and reacts to this angrily – as much with himself as
with Simon.
He tries to climb out of the cave, but decides his only hope is to abseil down, deeper
into the darkness.
This chapter shows us how Joe reacts in a time of psychological and physical trauma. At first
we see language that shows the reader that Joe has accepted he is going to die – he is
simply waiting to pull Simon over the edge. He notices the beauty of the stars, and as his
body shuts down he reflects on the end of his life almost light-heartedly, with pithy (short)
sentences: ‘So! It ends here. Pity!’
Again, a huge number of verbs are used to recreate the actions and movements of Joe and
his surroundings: ‘whoophing’, ‘retching’, ‘gagging’, ‘roaring’, ‘spasmed’. They are harsh
and uncompromising – there is no hiding from the trauma through which Joe’s body and
mind are going.
His reaction to the cut rope is to feel self-pity, and he sobs himself to sleep. He uses words
such as ‘here’ and ‘this’, rather than ‘there’, or ‘that’, to reflect on his situation in a more
immediate way than a simple past tense retelling: ‘I wasn’t meant to get out of here’, ‘We
shouldn’t even have got this far’. The grammatical difference between ‘this’ and ‘that’ is:
‘this’ is a proximal (close) demonstrative, and ‘that’ is a distal (implying distance)
demonstrative. Therefore you could say that in this sequence Joe uses the proximal
demonstrative form ‘this’ to bring the reader closer to his experience: ‘We shouldn’t even
have got this far’.
At the end of the chapter we see Joe take the brave decision to climb down further into the
darkness – he is almost literally ‘touching the void’. Remember ‘void’ means emptiness and
nothingness, and Joe is literally descending into the unknown. He has no idea if the rope is
long enough to take him to the bottom, or whether there is a way out from the bottom. He
shows the reader that even after all this time, and all that he has suffered, he is going to
suffer some more, in order to give himself the best chance of survival.
Key quotations:
‘To the bottom… To the water at the bottom? God! I hope not!’ (p.107)
‘The stars were good to see. I was glad to see them again. Old friends come back. ’ (p.108)
‘Heck! I couldn’t be alive and feel that!’ (p. 109)
‘Dead? I couldn’t conceive of him dead, not now, not after I’ve survived.’ (p. 111)
‘Cut! I couldn’t take my eyes from it’ (p. 114)
‘He had gone. I knew he would, and I knew he wouldn’t return. I was dead.’ (p.115)
‘If there was nothing there I didn’t want to come back.’ (p. 116)
Chapter Eight - Silent Witness
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From Simon’s point of view, he lowers himself down the slope, believing that he has
killed Joe, and that somehow the mountains will take him too.
He sees the crevasse into which Joe has fallen, and ‘knows’ that Joe is dead.
He continues down the glacier and moraines, wondering whether he should tell the
truth, or whether he should put a gloss on events to put himself in a better light.
He meets Richard, and decides that he should tell him the truth
The two return to the tents at their camp.
The split narrative again gives Simon the chance to put across his point of view, and his
‘version’ of events. We can see as readers that he is guilt-wracked, and in genuine mental
(and physical) agony. We can see his bravery in his thought process – he is brave enough to
admit to the world that he was considering lying about what had happened. The split
narrative again raises the tension in the novel – the concerns of the reader from the
previous chapter will lie with Joe’s descent into the void of the ice cave, but our attention is
diverted to Simon.
Simon uses this chapter to further convey his feelings of fatalism – a concept defined as ‘the
belief that all events are subject to fate’ – in essence, that we are not ‘in control’ of our own
destinies. It does not necessarily relate to death – as the stem ‘fatal’ might suggest, but in
this case it truly does. Simon recounts in the previous chapter how he believed that he felt
‘watched’ by his surroundings, now he is descending with the belief that he will not make it
down alive.
The chapter is taken up mostly of physical description – declarative sentences describing
the process of descent and the return to camp. However, there are occasions where Simon
offers us a simulation of his thought processes upon his journey. Short sentences are used
to mimic the stream of consciousness – his train of thought working through his moral
dilemma. The punctuation is used to mirror the rhythm of his thoughts: ‘He’s dead. How
he died isn’t important. I didn’t kill. I’m lucky I’m here at all... so why make it worse. I can’t
tell the truth.’ (p.125). Interestingly, he doesn’t offer a question mark on the phrase ‘why
make it worse’ – perhaps suggesting that his mind and thoughts are so tired he cannot even
summon the energy to ask a question, as a question would require an answer. However, it
could just be an inaccuracy in the text. But it’s important to look out for things like that.
Key question – what is the ‘Silent Witness’, to which the chapter title refers?
Key quotations:
‘It was as if the mountains were holding their breath, waiting for another death. Joe had
died. The silence said so; but must they take me as well?’ (p.117)
‘It was a pointless, stupid thing to have done – climb up it, across it, and down it. Stupid!’
(p.117)
‘I had been on it too long, and it had taken everything.’ (p.117)
‘What fools we were to think we had been clever enough to get away with it!’ (p. 118)
‘It was funny, I supposed. In a sick sort of way, it was funny all right, but the joke was on me.
Some joke!’ (p.118)
‘Why tell them that you cut the rope? They’ll never know otherwise, so what difference does
it make?’ (p.125)
‘Without realising I was doing it I told Richard exactly what had happened.’ (p.127)
Chapter Nine – In the Far Distance
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Joe descends to the bottom of the ice cave
He notices that he can crawl across the base of the cave, and up an ice slope to a
hole at the top
He proceeds to climb, with huge difficulty and massive pain
He reaches the ‘outside’, and meets it with elation, followed by the realisation of the
near-impossibility of descending the rest of the way.
He talks about a ‘voice’ in his head which orders him to act.
We again see a range of Joe’s emotions and characteristics. It appears incredible that a man
could go through the physical trauma that Joe has, but we see his mental strength come to
the forefront in this chapter. This is the first time we hear of ‘the voice’ – a part of Joe’s
mind which is telling him to fight, to move, to make decisions, and to act. He refers to the
voice repeatedly after this chapter.
At first, he recounts how he wouldn’t have the ‘courage’ for suicide, and he admits to
feelings akin to diving off a board high above a swimming pool. He describes being
‘paralysed’ by fear and panic (p.131). However, upon abseiling down to the bottom, he
finds himself with a way out – by taking action on the ice shelf he gave himself an
opportunity – no matter how slim – to survive.
He admits to feeling ‘invigorated’ – no mean feat bearing in mind his physical condition. He
recounts the ‘patterns’ that he discussed in previous chapters – the importance of patterns
in his mental as well as physical actions: ‘Find a routine and stick to it’ (p.136). An important
point occurs when he is on the brink of emerging from the ice cave – he looks across to
where he can see the ice cliff on which he was stranded, and reflects on his decision to take
the risk of descending into the abyss: ‘It was hard to believe how desperate I had been in
the night and while abseiling now that I was reaching for the sun. That was the hardest
thing I had ever done, and thinking about it I felt a huge surge of confidence build in me.’
(p.138)
Upon emerging from the ice cave, he describes his jubilation, which borders on hysterical,
before rationalising his situation – still six miles from camp, with a glacier and a boulder field
to traverse, with no food or water, and a badly broken leg. He, not for the first time,
personifies the mountains, and describes the threat he feels from them: ‘I was in a
malevolent place; a tangible hostility enclosed me as if the air had been charged with static
electricity. This was not the playground we had walked into so long ago’(p.140). Like
Simon, he sees the mountains as a force acting against him, and subjects himself to the
same fatalism. The interesting metaphor of the ‘playground’ offers a telling insight into
Joe’s confidence – perhaps arrogance in his initial approach to Siula Grande. Most nonclimbers, and many climbers themselves would not describe the isolated range as
something so child-like and recreational. His use of this statement shows his grim
acceptance of what nature can actually do.
Key quotations:
‘... the idea of waiting alone and maddened so long had forced me to this choice: abseil until
I could find a way out, or die in the process’ (p.130)
‘A floor!... There was no emptiness, and no black void.’ (p.132)
‘I was going to reach that sunbeam. I knew it then with absolute certainty. How I would do
it, and when I would reach it were not considered. I just knew.’ (p.133).
‘I felt as if I had been fighting someone too strong for me for far too long.’ (p.139)
‘The crevasse had only been a starter! How foolish to think that I had done it, that I was
safe!’ (p.140)
‘An excited tingle ran down my spine. I was committed.’ (p.141)
Chapter Ten – Mind Games
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Joe describes how he starts to crawl over the glacier.
He finds Simon’s footprints, and uses them to convince himself he is not alone.
The voice commands him to keep moving, and he makes tiny half-hour targets for
himself.
He shelters in a storm, which destroys the footprints.
Simon describes the day after he returns to camp, and how he attempts to deal with
Joe’s death.
Joe again uses the voice as an interesting narrative tool, to tell us how he mentally dealt
with getting off the glacier. He describes the voice as a cold, rational instructor, demanding
he do nothing but act, and offering him no sympathy. It is important to see this voice as
Joe’s survival instinct – an evolutionary defence mechanism that has built up over millions of
years, requiring that we do nothing if not survive.
The snow-prints are an important symbol for Joe (and, therefore, for us as readers). Joe
uses the footprints, in the absence of any other form of life, as a companion, as if Simon
were just around the corner. His traumatic response to the storm is as much about being
reminded of his loneliness as much as the physical discomfort of the cold and the wind.
Simon’s contribution to this chapter, although brief, is an interesting insight into his state of
mind, and his attempts to deal with the guilt, and his own physical problems from the
mountain. He describes how he washes off in the mountain lake, and how it acts
symbolically – washing off the events of the previous days. He also describes how he selfmedicates – he cleanses himself inside and out, and as a result he renews and regenerates
himself. Words like ‘ritualised’ and ‘systematically’ (p.151) show us that there is a part of
Simon’s psyche that is working on the same kind of rational, cold level as Joe’s. What Simon
is doing is a ‘catharsis’ – a Greek word which we use to describe an emotional release. The
burning of Joe’s clothes is a shocking moment – it is easy to be taken aback by how cold an
act this seems, but Simon sees it as a form of closure – a way of moving on. He has no room
for sentiment when it comes to the girls in the valley who could have used his clothes
themselves. It could also be seen as a form of ‘funeral’ – as Simon has not seen Joe’s dead
body, this is his way of ‘cremating’ Joe.
The split narrative also reminds us of the tension that will arise as a result of Simon and
Richard believing Joe to be dead, and Joe’s desperate battle to return to camp before they
leave. Already Simon and Richard are wondering how long they should stay. We are willing
them, as readers, to go back to look for Joe, but they have no reason to, and Simon barely
has the strength.
Key quotations:
‘Then the voice would interrupt the reverie and I would glance guiltily at my watch before
starting off again.’ (p.144).
‘I was split in two. A cold clinical side of me assessed everything, decided what to do and
made me do it. The rest was madness – a hazy blur of images so vivid and real that I lost
myself in their spell’ (p.145).
‘what I was really frightened of was losing a sign of life in the empty bowl of mountains
surrounding me.’ (p.147)
‘I sat beside them, opened the medicine kit and began systematically to dose myself.’ (p.151)
‘The ritualised examination seemed to confirm to me that everything was back to normal’
(p.151).
‘They (the girls) would have liked to have them, as their clothes were so tattered, but I went
ahead and burned them.’ (p.151)
Chapter Eleven – A Land Without Pity
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Joe continues his lonely descent
He describes again, in detail, the physical trauma of his leg, and the technical
difficulty of the descent
The voice continues to help him descend.
He decides to make a splint for his leg out of his sleeping mat, so that he can hop
through the boulders.
He convinces himself that his main goal is to get to ‘Bomb Alley’, whereas in
hindsight he reflects that he should rest.
The chapter starts with an allusion (a reference) to Shakespeare, by means of a soliloquy
that he remembered from school. The lines are taken from Measure for Measure, the
character Claudio muses on his impending sentence of death. In the scene from which Joe
recites, Claudio is told to accept death, then, life will be all the sweeter if death does not
come. It is clear to see how this particular line is relevant to Joe’s predicament.
The issue of water appears in this chapter – Joe reveals to us how desperate he is for water
that he can smell it in the surrounding snow. He eats snow, but cannot get enough fluid
back into his body to make it function properly. He describes the fear of dying for lack of
something so simple and straightforward.
We see the voice take control when he is in trouble, and he acts to make himself a splint for
his broken leg, showing his desperate resourcefulness. As he casts aside many of the
contents of his rucksack, symbolically he is bunkering down with his last ammunition. He
has himself and only himself to rely on, and he knows that this is his last chance.
The physical descriptions of Joe’s pain return in this chapter, and make the reading
uncomfortable. He deludes himself again that in fact his leg is not broken, and attempts to
walk on it, with predictably horrendous consequences.
At the chapter’s end, in a change of expectations, the ‘voice’ is telling him to rest in the
night, whilst his less rational side is urging him onwards, to the arbitrary target of ‘Bomb
Alley’. It is a further illustration of the scattered, schizoid (split) nature of his psyche, and
how desperate he has become.
The lack of Simon’s voice in this chapter is indicative of the increasing sense of loneliness
that Joe is feeling, as well as having to rely on himself and himself only. The chapter feels
lonely with only Joe’s point of view to hear from.
Key quotations:
‘The smell of water in the sun-heated snow surrounding me drove me close to panic.’
(p.155)
‘I braced myself and stepped forward onto my right leg. There was a twisting slip inside the
joint and bones grated sickeningly’ (p. 156)
‘There was no question of crawling. Walking was also out, so it would have to be hopping’
(p.161)
‘Five and a half hours to go before dark. Place-lift-brace-hop. I needed water. I wasn’t going
to reach Bomb Alley’. (p.162)
‘I forgot why I was doing it; forgot the idea that I probably wouldn’t make it.’ (p.163).
‘Now I staggered blind in the dark, obsessed with Bomb Alley, ignoring the voice which told
me to sleep, and rest, and forget the alley.’ (p.166)
Chapter Twelve – Time Running Out
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The chapter starts with Simon and Richard making plans to leave the camp
Simon and Richard search for money that belonged to Joe; Simon loses his temper with the
local children
Joe is still struggling down – he finds a water source which he laps at greedily.
He is finding himself ever closer to the camp, but struggling to come to terms with the
possibility that Simon and Richard may have already left.
The voice tells him that, even in the darkness of night, he needs to continue.
The split narrative again reminds us of how tense this story is. Whilst Richard is keen to get down
from the mountain as soon as he can, Simon is still reluctant to leave too early. As readers, we are
begging them to stay, but they are bound by the logic of their own understanding – that Joe is dead
and not worth waiting for. The tension in Simon in particular comes to a peak when he shouts at the
local Peruvian girls that come up to their camp. They wonder what Richard and Simon are going to
give them – perhaps as a present. The cultural differences are worth noting here – rural Peru has
been personified in the menace of the mountains, but it is continuing to attack Simon in a way – he
is alienated by the girls’ inability to react in the way he expects of them. Richard also makes note of
the cultural difference: ‘you know what their sense of time is like’ (p.169).
A moment of dramatic irony occurs when Simon notes an ‘eerie sound’ at about seven o’clock. The
men dismiss the sound as ‘bloody odd sounding dogs’, but we suspect – and it is confirmed later –
that it is Joe, screaming for help. The reader knows at this stage that Joe’s return is tantalisingly
close, but that his condition leaves him perilously susceptible to death.
Joe himself is faring badly. He has a small (and vital) moment of victory when he discovers a water
source. The way he describes his feelings – emotional and physical – on finding this water are
almost as if he has struck gold. The water seems to almost make him drunk, such is his gluttony on
such a discovery. However, this moment of success is overcast by Joe recounting how his dignity
was being stripped away further and further – he loses the ability to control his bladder, and his
extreme discomfort is given a new angle.
The scream for ‘SIIIMMMMOOOONNNN!’ confirms the dramatic irony hinted at earlier – we as
readers know the story from both sides; Joe remains ignorant that Simon has heard him – even
though he has dismissed it, and Simon is ignorant that the eerie sound is that of Joe himself.
As darkness closes on Joe the chapter ends on the desperate tone of Joe’s voice - telling him to
continue in the dark, as to rest and sleep in the cold will finish him off. We know as readers that
even if Joe were to survive the night, he would miss Simon and Richard at camp, due to their early
morning departure.
Key quotations:
‘To leave this place would free me from an unrelenting presence which accused me...’ (p.167)
‘Go away! Go on! Vayase! Go on! PISS OFF!’ (p.172)
‘I could hardly believe how badly I had deteriorated during the night’ (p.173)
‘I intended to break those hours into short stages, each one carefully timed’. (p.175).
‘I gasped for breath between frantic sucks at the wet slab’ (p.176)
‘I drank until my stomach hurt with the cold weight of water, and then drank more’ (p.177)
‘I roused myself from the stupor of fluid and looked around’ (p.177)
‘The night blanketed everything from sight, and I slipped into a delirium of muttered words and
distorted ideas of where I was and what I was doing’ (p.184)
Chapter Thirteen – Tears in the Night
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Joe finally makes it back to camp in the dead of night, at the end of his strength
Simon and Richard look after him, and Joe makes it quite clear that he not only forgives
Simon, but that Simon saved his life.
They examine the damage to Joe’s leg
They start the two day journey down to the village of Cajatambo
Joe is taken to a hospital, where he has to wait two days before they will operate
There is an interesting structure to this final chapter – the pace of the previous twelve
chapters has been slow, deliberate; no details have been spared. This chapter, by contrast,
is concise, sharp, to the point. Events come and go quickly, they pass in a blur, perhaps
mirroring Joe’s delirious state of mind upon his ‘rescue’.
His body appears to give out at the stage at which he finds himself back at camp – he dwells
on how as he returned, there was something in his body which gave up – how he actually
felt in more danger once he was back with Simon and Richard, as the ‘fight’ that got him
down the mountain had gone from him. The inner ‘voice’, his evolutionary survival instinct,
had gone, and he was now subject to the decisions of others.
The language used to describe their reunion is very emotive – the sentimental chapter title
hints at the unashamed emotion on show as Joe reunites with Simon. It is quite clear that
Joe is nothing but grateful to Simon – among his first words are: ‘you did right’. It is an
emotional release for the reader as much as the men; although we know that Joe survived,
as he wrote the book, but the journey down had been extremely tense and dramatic, and all
of Joe’s decisions, trials and trauma had been leading to the accomplishment of this last
goal.
As an aside to the main events of the chapter, some interesting further cultural differences
are highlighted – the bartering with the local man, Spinoza, for donkeys to take Joe down,
seems insensitive through our Western eyes. Upon arrival in Cajatambo, they attempt to
shoo locals off the pick-up they have hired to drive back to Lima, only to take pity on a man
who needs the hospital just as much as, if not more than Joe. This could be seen as a
digression to the events of Touching the Void, or perhaps, depending on how you read it, as
central to its themes – Joe’s tale of survival is incredible and laudable, but what of the
unnamed Peruvian man? We know not of whether he survived, or he kept his crushed legs,
as he cannot afford the luxury of the hospital Joe goes to in Lima. It is worth remembering
that humanity faces struggles akin to Joe’s every day in numerous forms – think, for
example, how many Somalis will write novels about the hundreds of miles they walked to
refugee camps in Kenya last year? Some had to leave their weakest children to die so that
their stronger children could survive, but they will not subsequently appear on BAFTAwinning documentaries like Simon was able to.
Interestingly, Joe chooses to end his tale of survival on a panicked note – he tells us of the
hospital he finds himself in – basic, but clean, and he seems to be comforted by the pretty, if
not English-speaking nurses. But his panic arises from going into surgery. It appears that,
despite getting down from the Andes, being in a foreign country, seemingly alone, he still
feels a sense of alienation and discomfort. We have the post-script to tell us that Joe is
healthy and still climbs, but this post-script is from the Himalayas, not Sheffield, where he
lives. It shows to us that despite all his trials and difficulties, Joe is strong enough to go back
to the mountains, and to face down what nearly killed him.
Key quotations:
‘For the first time in many days I accepted that I had finally come to the end of my strength’
(p.187)
‘”Joe! God! Oh my God! Fucking hell, fuck, look at you. Shit Richard, hold him. Lift him, lift
him you stupid bastard!”’ (p.188)
‘Endless cups of tea were given with concern, and now a deep abiding friendship’ (p.189)
‘The leg was a bloated stump stained yellow and brown, with livid purple streaks running
down from the knee’. (p.191)
‘The minute I knew that help was at hand something had collapsed inside me. Whatever
had been holding me together had gone.’ (p.195)
‘Three stones... God, I’d lost three stones!’ (p.198)
‘Darkness slipped over the lights, and all sounds muffled down to silence.’ (p.199)