Joe Simpson, The Climber Who Heard A ‘Clear And Commanding Voice’
Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoJoe Simpson later wrote about his experience in his book Touching the Void, which was also made into a movie.
Yet another mountain climber who encountered the third man phenomenon was Joe Simpson. In 1985, he and his climbing partner Simon Yates attempted to become the first men to summit the western face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Though their summit was successful, their difficult descent proved almost fatal for Simpson.
As the two men climbed down, Simpson fell and broke his leg. Though Yates attempted to help him, he was unable to do so — and eventually cut the rope that held them together to avoid falling down the mountain himself.
Simpson, alone and badly injured, faced almost-certain death. But then he started to hear a powerful voice.
tgraham/Wikimedia CommonsThe mountain range in the Peruvian Andes where Joe Simpson took his near-fatal fall.
“The voice was clean and sharp and commanding. It was always right, and I listened to it when it spoke and acted on its decisions,” he wrote in Touching the Void. “I had to get to the glacier… The voice told me exactly how to go about it, and I obeyed… It didn’t seem to concern me that I was moving like a snail. So long as I obeyed the voice, then I would be all right.”
Miraculously, Simpson was able to drag himself forward until he encountered Yates and their camp assistant. Eleven days after his initial fall, he was taken to the hospital.
Thanks to third man syndrome, Simpson had survived the impossible.
