People Who Survived What Should Have Been Instant Death

Touching The Void

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Joe Simpson wrote the book Touching The Void, detailing the disasters that struck him and Simon Yates. In 1985, they were descending from the 20,813-foot high Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Simpson slipped and broke his leg, then went over the cliff as he was being lowered by Yates.

Yates would be the one who made the controversial move of cutting the rope, a moved shunned by other mountaineers — it’s believed it saved their lives. After the broken leg, hypothermia and extreme dehydration, Simpson was able to make it back to camp just three days later.