Description
The first edition of Touching The Void, signed by the author, Joe Simpson and Chris Bonington.
Octavo, 174pp. Paper covered boards, blue cloth spine, title stamped in silver on spine. Stated “first U.S. Edition” with a full number line. Appears unread. In the publisher’s price clipped dust jacket, faint shelf wear, a near fine copy.
Signed on the title page by the author and Chris Bonington.
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson is a factual account of a 1985 mountaineering expedition in the Peruvian Andes, detailing Simpson’s and his climbing partner Simon Yates’ harrowing experience on Siula Grande, a 6,344-meter peak. The book describes their successful summit, followed by disaster during the descent when Simpson fell and broke his leg. As conditions worsened, Yates attempted to lower Simpson down the mountain but was forced to make the difficult decision to cut the rope connecting them when Simpson became stranded over a cliff edge in a snowstorm.
Remarkably, Simpson survived a subsequent fall into a crevasse and spent three days crawling back to base camp without food or water. The book, published in 1988, was critically acclaimed for its honest portrayal of extreme survival and the ethical dilemmas faced by climbers. It later inspired a 2003 documentary film of the same name, directed by Kevin Macdonald, which dramatized the events and featured interviews with both Simpson and Yates.
