Kevin Macdonald · 2003 · survival

Kevin Macdonald's 2003 documentary of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. They make the first ascent of the west face of Siula Grande and Simpson breaks his leg on the descent. Lowering him in a storm, Yates ends up holding his partner over a drop he cannot see, on a rope he cannot hold - and cuts it.

1. 1
   Lima

   Joe Simpson and Simon Yates arrive in Peru in 1985, two young British climbers with very little money, intending to make the first ascent of the unclimbed west face of a mountain in the Cordillera Huayhuash.

2. 2
   The Cordillera Huayhuash

   They set up base camp in the Huayhuash with a traveller named Richard left to mind it, and go up the face alpine style - light, fast, and with no possibility of rescue if anything at all goes wrong.

3. 3
   Siula Grande

   They summit late and start down the north ridge into deteriorating weather, and on the descent Simpson falls and drives his shin bone up through his knee joint - which in that place, both of them understand, is a death sentence.

4. 4
   The West Face

   Yates lowers him down the face rope-length by rope-length through a storm, until Simpson goes over an overhang and hangs in space, unreachable and unable to climb - and Yates, being pulled off the mountain himself, cuts the rope.

5. 5
   Base camp

   Simpson survives the fall into a crevasse, lowers himself deeper rather than wait to die, finds a way out onto the glacier and crawls three days to base camp - arriving hours before the others were due to leave.