Simon Yates of Touching the Void

Name: Simon Yates of Touching the Void
Start: 2025-01-18T14:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-01-19T22:00:00+00:00
Location: 47-53 Bath Road, GL53 7HG Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Schedule

Sat, 18 Jan, 2025 at 02:30 pm to Sun, 19 Jan, 2025 at 10:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

47-53 Bath Road, GL53 7HG Cheltenham, United Kingdom | Cheltenham, EN

Simon Yates of Touching the Void returns to the Cheltenham Playhouse following sell-out performances. Please note two different shows are available, information below:

Early Bird tickets are now on sale, giving an automatic discount of 10% off until Sunday 8th December 2024!

PLEASURE AND PAIN (New Talk) - Sat 18th @ 19:30 and Sun 19th @ 14:30

‘Touching the Void’ mountaineer Simon Yates is a veteran of over eighty expeditions to high and remote mountains around the globe. Now in his sixties, he is showing no signs of slowing down!

This is his story of the last decade, of new adventures and climbs in the far north and south, along with summits in South America, Central Asia and the Himalayas.

In 2023, Simon travelled with legendary British mountaineer Mick Fowler to attempt the un-climbed north face of Patkhor in Tajikistan. Their trip ran smoothly until the first evening on the mountain when they both contracted food poisoning from their freeze-dried food. After some debate they continued, but this was just the beginning of a series of events that would see them run out of food, retreat below the summit in a storm and Simon taking a bone-breaking 100m fall during the descent. After two days of lying on the glacier waiting for a helicopter, rescuers finally arrived but were unable to carry Simon down. Somehow, he would need to summon the energy for the painful three-day walk to safety.
A survival classic, with the added twists of a fast-paced thriller.

MY MOUNTAIN LIFE (Original Talk) - Sat 18th @ 14:30 and Sun 19th @ 19:30
On the remote Siula Grande in Peru in June 1985, mountaineer Simon Yates found himself in a desperately unenviable position. He was slowly being pulled off the mountain face by his injured partner, Joe Simpson, dangling on the rope 50 metres below. His decision to cut the rope saved both their lives in the epic survival that followed and with the publication of the book ‘Touching The Void’, later film and stage play, both climbers became household names.

It was an experience that could have put many off the sport of mountaineering – but not Simon. Over 35 years later, he is still a very active exploratory climber and guide, making several expeditions to the mountains each year. From the Arctic to the Antarctic, Alaska to Central Asia there is hardly a significant range that he has not visited.

Come along and witness Simon’s tireless journey from that mountain in Peru to some of the remotest on the planet and share with him the drama, excitement and beauty of modern, lightweight alpinism. Told with wit, dry humour and lavishly illustrated with images and film collected on his great climbs.

“Simon is a totally engaging speaker, who both entertains and inspires.”