The Right Decision? - Part 2

Yates didn’t know what was happening below. He waited for an hour but the rope was too heavy and it was pulling Yates down the mountain towards the cliff. He had two choices: hold the rope but then both of them might die, or cut the rope and survive...

It was an impossible decision for Yates but, at the last second, Yates cut the rope and saved himself. Immediately, Simpson fell thirty meters into a crevasse*. The next day, while Yates was desperately looking for Simpson, he found the crevasse. He called for Simpson but he heard nothing. Sadly, he decided that Simpson was dead. Yates didn’t know it but Simpson was – unbelievably – still alive inside the crevasse. Simpson waited for hours but when he realised Yates wasn’t coming, he decided to take a risk. He had some rope so he rappelled to the bottom of the crevasse. He managed to find a way out. For three days, Simpson drank water from the snow and ice. He crawled back towards the base camp and at four o’clock in the afternoon of Day 7, Simpson was very near.

In the middle of that night, Yates was sleeping in his tent at base camp when he woke up. He was sure someone was shouting his name. Excitedly, he ran outside and looked around. Finally, after searching and searching he found Simpson. He was lying on the ground, not moving, but he was still breathing. After a few days, the two men returned home and their story became famous. Unfairly, some climbers criticized Yates for cutting the rope. But, in 1988, Simpson wrote a book about the events and defended Yates. Simpson believed Yates made the right decision.