Touching The Void Character Analysis

You are putting yourself in high risk when you are participating in extreme sports. There are several reasons for why an athlete put themselves through those risk just for a sport. In Touching the Void, Joe Simpson and Simon are climbing a 21,000-foot mountain that no one has accomplished. “Looming over, with my stomach clenched, and a sharp sense of danger, I enjoyed the feeling” (Simpson 31). When Joe was almost at the top of the mountain he expresses his emotions that he feels being up there and being to accomplish his goals. Hoping to climb a mountain that was never successfully done before triggered Joe and Simon to climb the West face of Siula Grande. Being in the cold, bizarre weather and not having enough energy due to the lack of food and water could have lead them to make mistakes and take a turn for the worst. Simon was put in a difficult situation when he couldn’t hold on to Joe’s weight and decided to cut the rope that tied him to Joe, for his survival.
There are much more dangers in the climbing that Joe and Simon took than just regular mountain climbing, which may be another reason why they had many misfortunes during there ascend. “With increasing altitude, ambient air pressure and as a consequence partial pressure of oxygen decrease causing hypobaric hypoxia. Hypoxia is responsible for the decrease in endurance performance of mountaineers when ascending to high altitude and plays a key role in the pathophysiology of high-- altitude illnesses” (Sumann 8). Climbing in weather that is as bad as what Joe and Simon went through in Siula Grande could have affected their decision making. They were trying to climb as fast as they could because it was getting dark with the snow clouding their sight to see clearly but sometimes they just kept on going because they had to find the right place to sleep. The lack of food and water affected their ability to climb the mountain and caused them to be more