Richard Hawking

A short documentary that continues the story of 'Touching the void'. The film tells what happened after Joe Simpson was found next to Siula Grande's base camp: how did his companions assisted him, how did they managed to take him to the Lima hospital without the assistance of a rescue team... Joe and Simon also speak about how Yates was criticised for cutting the rope by a misleading article in a national newspaper and how their friends and the climbing community responded. Simpson published an article in the climbing press shortly afterwards, and later wrote Touching the Void.

The story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' return to the mountain of Siula Grande for the making of the film 'Touching The Void'. The film recounts a fateful climb Joe Simpson and his mountaineering partner, Simon Yates, undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. This making of the film Touching the Void throws up some interesting and possibly conflicting insights into what happened following the attempted rescue and subsequent survival of a young mountaineer on the west face of the Siula Grande. When Simon and Joe collaborated on the film in 2003, they had not seen one another for 10 years.

Based on Joe Simpson’s international bestseller, 'Touching the Void' documents one of the most extraordinary true stories of adventure and survival of our time. Made by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, the film recounts a fateful climb Joe Simpson and his mountaineering partner, Simon Yates, undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. This feature documentary combines dramatic reconstruction of the climb, and interviews with the two climbers nearly killed on the 21,000-foot Siula Grande. The big success of the movie inspired the whole I Shouldn't Be Alive TV series, from the same producers.