La epopeya de Simpson es considerada por los montañistas entre las leyendas e historias más destacadas de ascensos.
== Controversia ==
Algunos miembros de la comunidad de escaladores consideraron que Yates was mistaken to cut the rope, and that he should have held on as long as he could to give Simpson every chance to work out a solution to his predicament. Joe Simpson himself has never voiced anything other than complete support for Simon Yates' action.
Further it should be noted that Simpson was freezing to death on the end of the rope, and would not have lasted much longer, even if the belay seat Yates had used to support himself in the loose snow had lasted (which it didn't). Cutting the rope not only freed Yates to seek shelter from the storm, but dropped Simpson down to a sheltered spot where he too could survive the weather. Had the two fallen while roped together, it is possible that Simpson would still have survived, but it is very unlikely that Yates would have. As it was, Yates climbed down to base camp and met up with their traveling companion, Richard Hawking. Yates y Hawking permanecieron en el campamento base por unos días mientras Yates recuperaba fuerzas y se sanaban sus heridas. Cuando Simpson se arrastra hasta el campamento a mitad de la noche, ellos estaban haciendo planes para partir la mañana siguiente. Had Yates not returned to base camp ahead of Simpson, Richard probably would have left well before Simpson managed to crawl out of the crevasse and down to camp. Without anyone to help him out of the mountains, Simpson would have died there. Por lo que se puede concluir que Yates al cortar la soga en realidad le salvó la vida a Simpson.
== Comentarios ==
La infancia de Simpson, growing up, getting climbing experiences and also the times after the Touching the Void (including the part about the complicated healing of his injuries and writing the book) is described in his other book called ''This Game of Ghosts'' (Vintage Books, 1993).
A variant of the "Touching the Void" route was climbed later in 1999 and was called "[[Avoiding the Touch]]". (Véase [[Siula Grande]])
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== Bibliografía ==
* ''Touching the Void'', by Joe Simpson ISBN 0-09-977101-2 publicada por Vintage
