The Beckoning Silence - Joe Simpson
(Hardback £17.99 - Random
House)
Quite a few men hitting 40 succumb to the symptoms of classic
mid-life crisis - you know, a ridiculously fast motorcycle, a
refurbished child bride and all sorts of bizarre and uncharacteristic
risk taking.
Joe Simpson on the other hand, does it all backwards - faced with the
reality of ageing he decides to give up on the big mountains (though
not cragging or icefall climbing) and take up less hazardous
pastimes, though in Simpson's case this means paragliding.
Before he bids the biggies farewell though, he decides on one
final major climb, yep, on hitting 40, he resolves to tackle the
legendary North Face of the Eiger along with all its psychological
and historical baggage.
The Beckoning Silence takes the reader from iffy icefall climbing
in the French Alps, via Bridalveil Falls in the Rockies to the
harrowing climax of the book on the Nordwand itself. As always
Simpson is immensely readable and, as so often, he dons his cape as
the Nick Hornby of mountaineering literature.
Unlike most climbing writers and his own heroes, who are dotted
through the book, Simpson is relentlessly honest and racked with self
doubt. His two greatest strengths are the unsheathing of the
insecurities and thought processes that most climbers go through, but stash safely away from view, and a
gift for vividly describing the sensations and mechanics of climbing.
In this book he does both and while it's not always a comfortable
read - what do you expect from Simpson - in my opinion, it's his best
work since Game of Ghosts and well worth reading. The final chapters
of the book when Simpson and his climbing partner Ray Delaney are
Don't take my word for it though, two pieces, which are
effectively extracts from the book have already been published on
OUTDOORSmagic. Check them out and decide for yourself. Bear in mind
that they have been edited for the web.
(more links below)
