Many professional climbers dream of conquering a dangerous peak at least once in their lives. Such a climb is extremely dangerous, so most often they decide to go in a pair with a reliable companion. So decided to do and two British athletes Simon Yates and Joe Simpson in 1985, their goal was to conquer the peak of Sioux Grande. At first everything was going fine: they succeeded in a very difficult ascent from the western face, but there was a difficult descent ahead.
That’s where the trouble started. Joe had broken his leg, so Simon decided to lower his friend down using a rope over short distances. The method proved effective, albeit quite slow and very energy consuming. On another descent, an exhausted Simon sensed from the tension of the rope that Simpson was not anchored to the slope. Yates held the rope, but had no strength to pull his friend up the slope. Simon was very cold and his hands were icy, so he made the hardest decision of his life to cut the rope.
The man then returned to the camp and informed everyone that the other climber had died.However, Joe managed to survive. As he cut the rope, he passed out and regained consciousness only from a hard blow on the ice from his fall. Unaware of what had happened, the man decided to fight for his life to the very end. Joe had crawled for seven days to reach his camp. Though he lost half of his weight, he survived and made it to his destination.
Everyone at the camp was surprised to see him, especially a shocked Simon. Everyone thought what he had done was wrong, for he had abandoned a close friend in trouble. Joe was the only one who stood up for Simon. He said he believed the situation had given his friend no choice, which was why he understood and was not offended.Both men continued to do what they loved and have climbed many more times. Since then, however, they have never been paired up again.