Touching the Void

I’ve read a few of these real life, over the top books before, so Touching the Void was more of the same, though with this one it was 2 climbers and not a group.  Additionally, this one didn’t end in tragedy like Into Thin Air.  I guess as someone who is afraid of heights, I just don’t get it.  Climbers I speak to speak of the “high” one gets hanging from a cliff looking at the beauty of the scenery.  Not having that beauty in the book, it’s even harder to get through.  While the story is griping, never understand the “why”…  This story related the experience of two climbers (Simon and Joe) who experience a near death at the 6,344-metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.  Two climbers who get separated through a “cutting of the chord” on their descent of the mountain.  One climber falls down into a huge crevice in the mountain, breaks a leg, but escapes the next day and heads down the mountain, three days without water or food – (it is a truly amazing reflection of how the human spirit can survive!).  There is the obstacle of “losing his mind” as he nears the campsite, but he manages to make it.  The other climber descends feeling his comrade died on the mountain, unsure of what he will share with his family and friends.  The story gives both men’s perspectives, one thinking he is dying, attempting to come down the mountain, while the other on his way down (and later at the campsite with another climber), feeling his loss of his friend from the mountain.  In the end a joyous reunion occurs, shouldn’t all stories end this way, especially for people who create the tragedy.  Sorry, not a great deal of sadness for me.  (Sorry climbers, not trying to have you tee off on me…)