Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

Simpson reached the ice leading to the glacier and fell down a slope, further damaging his broken leg. Unable to stand, he laid down on his side and propelled himself forward with ice axes. He followed Yates’s footprints in the snow to avoid crevasses. Simpson occasionally stopped, and his mind drifted to thoughts of his hometown of Sheffield, his mother, and the lyrics of pop songs. Gazing at the ice cliff, he imagined human forms in its face. However, the assertive voice in his head brought him back to reality again, instructing him to continue. The voice told him that he must reach specific landmarks by a given time.

The wind gathered, and the sky indicated an impending storm. When it began to snow, Simpson panicked that Yates’s prints would be covered. Soon, the snow obscured the footprints, and darkness fell. Simpson wanted to sleep where he was, but the voice urged him to dig a snow hole in a slope.

The text switches to Yates’s account. Awakening late in his tent at base camp, Yates felt angry at the landscape and the decision it led him to make. After washing in the lake and tending to his wounds, Yates began to feel better and was sure he did the right thing.