This movie is insane! It unfolds more like a documentary with re-enactment, actually that’s exactly what it is. The documentary interviews all of the men involved which are Simon Yates, Joe Simpson, and Richard Hawking. In a strange or perhaps fated series of events, Simon and Joe travel to Peru in hopes to successfully complete the first ascent of the western face of Siula Grande, a venture that had been tried but never successfully attempted. It was because of this reasoning that Simon and Joe find themselves pursuing such an attempt, within the opening credits they also said “fun” also fueled their desire to climb the western face of Siula Grande.

If “fun” was what they were looking for, it was certainly short lived and replaced with something that is almost indescribable. The particular style for their climb that they had agreed upon was referred to as “alpine climbing” and while watching the movie, this “light climbing” approach definitely worked in their favor. It seems that a lot of luck was on their side or rather, fate and mother nature were both on their sides. It was while preparing for the climb at the lower levels of their “base camp,” they encountered a man named Richard Hawking. He appeared to be friendly and camping for leisure, he mentions within the documentary that while he was encouraged to attempt the climb with Simon and Joe, he was not a mountaineer by any means and felt that it was too dangerous and kindly declined both men’s invitation. He did however, remain at his camp after both men had departed for their push up the mountain in hopes of greeting them on their successful ascent and descent.

The alpine climbing style was used because both men felt that a single-day push up the western face of Siula Grande was not unreasonable and fairly realistic because the weather was cooperating. Their progress was fast and both Simon and Joe stated within the documentary that they were both impressed with their time and felt that it was within their grasps. However, because this particular face had not been successfully attempted, both men were taken aback with the particular snow conditions on the final push toward the summit, the snow was described as almost sugar-like, with no stickiness to it, a powdery snow that left both climbers exhausted in their attempts to find some sort of grip and holdings as they climbed further up. It was because of the snow conditions that Joe and Simon would take three days to make their successful ascent and it was by day three that Richard Hawking felt that both men had died on their attempt, but he still remained at his camp, holding onto a sliver of hope that he would see them again.

With their ascent successful, Simon and Joe were now faced with an even harder task that many mountaineers agree is the most difficult part of any high-altitude climb, they had to climb down. It was while climbing down and both men tied together on one rope line that Joe slipped and broke his leg, with one part of his bone bypassing the knee cap and hitting the upper bones in his leg; a break that Joe described as excruciating and a death sentence. Due to both men on the same rope line, they depended upon each other to not only ascend but to also descend and if one was hurt, the other had to make the decision to somehow transport (in this case Joe) down the face or cut the rope. Simon chose to lower Joe 300 ft. at a time down the face as quickly as possible to save time as well as make use of the valuable sunlight, it was a slow process for Simon but a fast and painful one for Joe. What I thought was interesting was the understanding that Joe had regarding Simon’s fast descent of his friend, while it was excruciatingly painful and I’d be quite mad, Joe understood and felt that Simon had every right to feel angry at their position.

While lowering Joe, he fell off of a ledge and this prevented Simon from continuing with the lowering process. It also confused Simon, as he would tug on the rope to let Joe know to lessen his weight on the rope so that Simon could continue descending as well and give it some slack; but the slack never came. After waiting for some time, Simon began to feel that his life was becoming more and more in danger and the threat of death became very real, it was because of this threat that he decided to cut the rope binding the two men together.

The cut sent Joe falling into a crevasse, a fall that he luckily survived. While in the crevasse, Simon successfully descended and found Richard, Richard states that Simon looked absolutely awful and felt that staying a night would help strengthen him and also learned that Joe was dead (or so they thought.) It was in the crevasse that Joe thought long and hard about life and death, what happens after you die, and looked inwardly at himself and his will to live; it was an experience that most climbers probably find themselves experiencing and it is a situation that determines what one is made of.

It was within his “tomb” so to speak that Joe made the brave decision to climb lower into the crevasse in hopes of finding the ending and an escape out of the crevasse, which he does. As he slowly and excruciatingly scoots himself down Siula Grande, he would move in 20 minute intervals because he said that the enormity of his situation could not be processed by his brain. Bit by bit he reached the camp that Richard and Simon were shockingly at and after multiple surgeries, he is still climbing today! What I enjoyed most about this movie was both climbers not faulting the other for the decisions they made and that above all, they did truly work as a team until they couldn’t anymore. I said it before and now, I’m not so sure that I could successfully climb a mountain. While modernity has taken hold of mountaineering, unexpected instances occur that calls one to dig deep within themselves and call upon their natural instincts to survive, no matter the costs. It was amazing hearing Joe recount his ordeal of how he got back down a mountain with a severe leg break, no water, and with a sliver of hope. It was hope that I feel got him down the mountain, it was hope that kept both Simon and Richard at their camp.