Page 86 - Unit 5 - Exercise 1A

Page 86 - Unit 5 - Exercise 1A

Touching the Void

A true story

The year is 1985, and three young climbers - Simon Yates, Joe Simpson and Richard Hawking - are planning to climb the Siula Grande mountain in Peru. The mountain is 6,344 metres high.They’re going to climb the mountain’s West Face. Nobody has ever climbed this before.

Richard stays at the base camp, whileJoe and Simon set out to climb the mountain. There’s a snowstorm on the way up, so the journey takes a long time. But on the third day they reach the top. They’ve done it! They start to climb down again. It’s slow and difficult; and then disaster happens. Joe falls and breaks his right leg badly. He can’t walk. Now Simon has to lower Joe down the mountain on a rope. He lowers Joe 100 metres, and then another 100 metres. It’s very slow and painful.

Then another disaster happens.There’s a snowstorm.

Simon can’t see very well with all the snow, and he lowers Joe over a cliff. Joe is hanging in mid-air. He can’t climb backup the rope and Simon can’t pull him up.Then Simon also starts to slide down towards the cliff. He decides he must save himself or they will both fall over the cliff and die. So he takes his knife and cuts the rope. Joe falls down the cliff into a deep hole in the ice. By now it’s dark. Simon digs a hole in the snow and goes to sleep for the night. The next day he looks for Joe, but he can’t find him. He thinks that Joe is dead. So he climbs down the mountain to the base camp.

Joe, however, is not dead. He finds a way out of the hole.

He’s got no food or water, but for three days he hops and crawls down the mountain. Finally, he can’t go any further. It’s dark and he can’t see anything. He lies down in the snow and falls asleep.

Simon and Richard are still at the base camp, but they’re going to leave the next day. So even if Joe reaches the camp, there will be nobody there.

But then a very strange thing happens. Joe wakes up. He can smell something bad. At first he can’t understand it.

Then he realizes it’s their toilet. He’s near the base camp. He shouts:’Help! Help!’ Richard and Simon rush out of their tent and find him.

They can’t believe it. Joe has survived!