Keynote Speaker: Joe Simpson • Presented by SpeakInc — Transcript

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1. 0:04We started down from the summit. We had
2. 0:06planned to be down off the mountain and
3. 0:08at our base camp that day. A storm came
4. 0:11in within an hour of leaving the summit.
5. 0:13Unfortunately, as night fell, we were
6. 0:15still very high on the mountain. And we
7. 0:17were forced to dig another snow cave and
8. 0:19spend another night on the mountain
9. 0:21side. Now, we had not planned for this.
10. 0:22Now, the way you dive climb something
11. 0:24like this, you've got your two ice axes.
12. 0:26You got the cliff behind you. You kneel
13. 0:27down, you whack your ice axes in and
14. 0:29lower yourself off the edge of the cliff
15. 0:31till you hang it on your two axes. And
16. 0:32then you kick the front points, the two
17. 0:35front points of your krampons into the
18. 0:37ice. So you're standing on a couple of
19. 0:38inches of steel. Then what you do, you'd
20. 0:41release one axe, slam it in the ice,
21. 0:43release another one, slam it in,
22. 0:45straight your arms, kick your feet.
23. 0:47Fairly straightforward, really.
24. 0:50It isn't actually. It's very difficult
25. 0:51down climbing. It's completely the
26. 0:52opposite of a natural way of climbing.
27. 0:54But the other thing about ice climbing
28. 0:55is that ice is a very fickle medium.
29. 0:58Just sounded weird. And I was very
30. 1:00conscious that Simon was moving towards
31. 1:02me. So I thought, I want every axe
32. 1:04placement to be bombroof. So I took the
33. 1:06axe out again and I was about to swing
34. 1:08to make another placement. And there was
35. 1:10a loud crack and all the ice around my
36. 1:12top axe did what we call dinner plated.
37. 1:14Great sheet of it just cracked off and
38. 1:17it whipped out. It happened to happen at
39. 1:19that exact moment where my other tool
40. 1:21wasn't in the eyes, but it span me and I
41. 1:24was falling instantly. After 50 feet,
42. 1:26I'd stopped. I was lying on my back,
43. 1:30face down, uh, on my back, head down the
44. 1:32slope, looking up the slope with my good
45. 1:35leg, my left leg tangled in the rope. I
46. 1:36say my good leg because almost the
47. 1:39instant I stopped, I had the most ex
48. 1:41excruciating agony coming from my knee.
49. 1:44Almost unbearable. By the time I'd
50. 1:46established my leg was broken, the rope
51. 1:48went slack. It meant that Simon was
52. 1:50coming towards me. And it took about 15
53. 1:53minutes for him to get close to me. And
54. 1:55in that moment, it was the closest on
55. 1:57mountain I've ever come to panicking and
56. 1:58losing it completely. I couldn't think
57. 2:00any plan out of this situation. I knew I
58. 2:03was going to die. I knew that Simon was
59. 2:05going to have to leave me for to die.
60. 2:07And I was close to tears. And then
61. 2:08suddenly he was at the top of the cliff
62. 2:10looking down at me. And he said, "Are
63. 2:12you okay?" And it actually occurred to
64. 2:14me to say, "Yes,
65. 2:16we will lie in some extraordinary
66. 2:18circumstances." And um I just want to be
67. 2:20calm, Joe. And I said, "No, I've broken
68. 2:22my leg." And he just kept staring at me.
69. 2:24He said nothing. He just kept staring at
70. 2:26me. And that frightened me more than
71. 2:27anything. And then he turned away. He
72. 2:29had to try and get down to me. And to do
73. 2:31that, I had to untie from my double
74. 2:33ropes. And he had to use the ropes and
75. 2:34hammer in a snow stake and basically
76. 2:36arrange what's called an absale, which
77. 2:37is to slide down a rope in a control
78. 2:39way. And the silence he had in in the
79. 2:42reaction to the news of my my uh my
80. 2:44broken leg was what was frightening me.
81. 2:46And I only realized much much later
82. 2:48actually. We never taught any protocol
83. 2:50by which you're going to tell your
84. 2:51friend that you're going to leave him to
85. 2:52die. And I knew he had to go. I didn't
86. 2:55blame him and why should he die for me
87. 2:57basically. And I thought well I'll just
88. 2:58put my head down and Simon will climb
89. 2:59below me and then he'll climb off to the
90. 3:01right and he'll go. We don't need to
91. 3:03speak about it and I'll play out my end
92. 3:05game, you know. And after a while I
93. 3:07looked to my right and about 10 ft away
94. 3:09there was Simon. He was using his other
95. 3:10axe and he was chopping a ledge with his
96. 3:13ice ax along this slope about 10 in wide
97. 3:15to make it easier for me to hop along.
98. 3:18And I was thinking, he's not leaving me.
99. 3:21I don't know what his plan is, but I'm
100. 3:23going with it. And Simon lowered me hour
101. 3:25after hour after hour in the teeth of a
102. 3:27storm in a windchill of about minus 50.
103. 3:30This is an overhanging ice cliff
104. 3:32sticking out. That's the mountain slope.
105. 3:34It's sticking out from the mountain side
106. 3:35like that. At the base of it is a
107. 3:37creasse, by which I mean a great crevice
108. 3:39in the in the glass of the mountain in
109. 3:41the slope below. And Simon lowered me
110. 3:43straight off the edge of it. We had no
111. 3:45idea it was there. My sudden complete
112. 3:48weight hitting the rope would have just
113. 3:50ripped him off if he held the rope. So
114. 3:51he just let the rope go and then slowly
115. 3:54dynamically break it. It meant though
116. 3:57when I came to a stop I was about 20 30
117. 3:59feet or 10 meters whatever down hanging
118. 4:02in free air off the edge of this
119. 4:03overhanging cliff spinning in
120. 4:05desperation to get my weight off the
121. 4:06rope he just started lowering me as fast
122. 4:08he could. And after about another 30 ft
123. 4:12I came to a stop and uh I knew exactly
124. 4:16what had happened. The knot joining the
125. 4:18two ropes had just come up and up and up
126. 4:20and just jammed in this friction device.
127. 4:24There was no way. We were locked in the
128. 4:25system. And there's no way I could get
129. 4:27out of it. After about an hour and a
130. 4:29half, I started free falling.
131. 4:39[Music]
132. 4:48[Music]