25 September 2023 , 07:25
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A free-climber who cut his injured friend loose over an icy cliff to save himself has survived another brush with death - after falling more than 300ft down a mountain.
Simon Yates, from Leicestershire, is one of the most famous and accomplished British mountaineers of his time, but is best known for his harrowing expedition to the Andes. Yates and his climbing partner Joe Simpson ascended the previously unclimbed west face of Siula Grande in 1985.
But disaster struck on the descent when Simpson slipped down an ice cliff breaking his right leg. Yates tried to lower him down the mountain, but in a raging storm, he was forced to cut the rope from which Simpson was dangling in order to save himself.
He fell 150ft but miraculously survived. Both men made it back to base camp, and their story later became the subject of the 2003 documentary film Touching the Void, winning the 2004 Bafta's Outstanding British Film of the Year award.
Yates and Simpson's story became the subject of the 2003 documentary film Touching the Void (Daily Record)Now, nearly 40 years later, Yates has made another astounding escape. The 60-year-old was abseiling down another icy wall on Patkhor Peak, in Tajikistan, when the rope he was attached to came loose and he plummeted more than 300ft. The dad-of-two suffered broken ribs and a crushed vertebrae during the accident, which took place in July.
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He told the Sunday Times: "I just thought, 'That’s it, I’m gone, this is the end'. My head wasn’t injured but I basically blacked out — my brain just shut down. When I came to, I was lying in a basin of snow and Mick was out of sight. There was another 1,500ft of mountain still beneath me, so I was lucky."
The accident is said to be Yates' first throughout his 38-year career. He went over the wall before his mountaineering partner, Mick Fowler, when the anchor attaching his rope to the mountain gave way. Yates plunged and vanished around a corner, but his head torch fortunately gave away his location.
Fowler said he managed to get Yates' crampons back on before, through sheer adrenaline, he "managed to stagger down". The pair then slept the night in a sleeping bag on a glacier below the mountain, where Yates used a satellite phone to call their insurance company and his wife Jane, who lives in Cumbria.
A helicopter couldn't get to the area, however. So, with the help of rescuers and after gaining some strength from food, Yates managed to stumble down and reached a nearby village after three days. They then spent two days travelling by Jeep, before flying to Birmingham.
Yates insisted that the experience didn't bring back any memories of his time in Siula Grande. He said he hasn't spoken to Mr Simpson in years, adding: "To be honest, we never had much in common."