Exercise 7a, page 65.0:00
Against all odds, imagine having to make a life or death decision, but one that affected not only your own life, but someone else's as well.0:09
This is exactly what happened to Simon Yates.0:37
When he was just 21 years old, Simon found himself faced with an agonizing save his own life, but in doing so, send his friend Joe Simpson to almost certain death.0:40
Or try to save his friend, but almost certainly die in the attempt to do so.0:52
The story of Simon's choice and the result of his decision is a truly incredible tale of survival.0:58
In the summer of 1985, British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb siula Grande, a 21,000 foot peak in the Peruvian Andes.1:05
The mountain had never been conquered before, so for two adventurous and bold young men, it represented an irresistible challenge.1:17
Joe and Simon chose the most difficult way up the mountain for their ascent.1:25
Nevertheless, they reached the summit without any problems.1:30
For their descent, however, they decided to take an easier path.1:34
But it was on this supposedly simpler route that disaster struck.1:38
Zhou slipped and broke his leg in three different places.1:44
In severe pain, he was completely crippled, unable to go on.1:48
Both climbers knew what this meant.1:52
With no food or water left and a real threat of hypothermia, they simply had to get off the mountain quickly.1:55
So, against all odds, Saima decided to try to get his injured friend down to safety.2:02
Using a rope, he began lowering his friend down the mountain 100 incredibly painful meters at a time.2:07
At first, things went well, but then after one particular drop, Simon got no sound or signal back from Joe.2:16
Without knowing it, in the pitch black of the night, Simon had lowered his friend over the edge of a deep crevasse.2:23
Hanging over the cliff, Joe's fingers were so frostbitten that he was unable to climb back up the rope.2:30
Neither could he grab hold of the cliff because he was too far away from the rocks.2:37
Both climbers were too far away from each other to communicate.2:41
Simon held onto the rope for over an hour, trying to hold Joe's weight on the other end.2:45
But his strength grew weaker and weaker and he felt himself being slowly pulled down towards the edge of the crevasse.2:50
Simon knew he could not hold onto the rope forever without being pulled to his death himself.2:58
So, shaking with cold, he made the painful decision.3:03
Later, strongly criticized by some other mountaineers, to save his own life, he took a knife and cut the rope that tied him to his friend.3:07
Then, believing his friend would never have survived the fall, he continued down the mountain alone.3:16
But miraculously, Zhou was not killed by his fall.3:23
He was badly injured, close to death, in fact, and he had no food or water.3:26
But he was alive and he was determined not to die alone.3:32
In an unbelievable display of willpower, Joe managed to crawl seven miles down the mountain to safety.3:36
It took him four days.3:43
Joe's great courage and extraordinary determination saved him.3:45
If you want to learn more about Simon and Joe's extraordinary tale of adventure and survival, you can read Joe Simpson's book Touching the Void.3:50
A film of the same name has also been made based on Joe's book.3:59
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