Touching The Void Page #2

I've never been that

high before, and it's

very very strenuous

to climb ice like that.

Not only is it technically difficult

and unstable and frightening,

but your heart is going like

crazy because of the altitude.

It would now go very cold indeed.

And we were up

Then it started snowing, and it meant

that the whole face was pooring

with powdersnow avalanches.

The snow would actually stick

on the outside of your clothing.

It would then freeze on top of you,

like you're wearing a suit of armor.

The last section on the face

was about 100m of the

most nightmarish climbing.

Completely unstable powder snow.

No anchors at any point.

It was physically very, very

tiring, full-body climbing really.

It took us the best part of 5 or

Carried on way after it got dark.

I was getting extremely cold,

'cause I was sitting still

while Simon was trying to climb.

I was getting near hypothermic.

You just knew that if you'd

just carried on, regardless,

it was gonna go tits up.

So we dug a snow cave.

In the morning, in good weather,

we actually saw what

we'd been trying to climb.

It was this undeering nightmare of

flutings of the finest powder

gouged out by snow falling down

meringues, and mushrooms, and

cornices all over the place.

We'd heard about these strange powder

snow conditions you get in the Andes,

and we've never seen it before.

I don't know the physics that explains why

powder snow can stay on such steep slopes.

In the Alps it would just slide off

if the slope was about 40 degrees.

It is some of the most precarious, unnerving

and dangerous climbing I've ever done.

We were actually scared, that

we would get to an impass,

where we couldn't climb any further up.

Because we knew we wouldn't

be able to get back down,

not what we've already climbed.

We were climbing ourselves into a trap.

And not only that, we could see this

And so it was with great

relief that by 14:00,

we got onto the north

ridge and on the west face.

And we vowed that we didn't want to

go near any of the flutings again.

We were pretty tired, by the

time we got onto the ridge,

I was knackered. And

I remember thinking,

"Oh sod it, we've done the face,"

"now I can't really be bothered

to go all the way up there"

And then we thought, "Hang

on, we've come all this way,"

"we might as well stand on the top"

I don't particularly like summits,

because 80% of accidents happen on descent.

We decided before we even climbed the

face that we were going to come down

the north ridge of the

mountain, down to a cul

between the mountain Siula Grande

and another mountain called Yerupaja.

and then we'd be able to abseil

down the smaller section of the face.

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