MOUNTAIN STORY: Mountaineer and adventurer Simon Yates will be telling his story at the Witham early next month
MOUNTAIN STORY: Mountaineer and adventurer Simon Yates will be telling his story at the Witham early next month

A BARNARD Castle audience will hear a dramatic first-hand account of how a mountaineer had to make a fateful life and death decision that would become international news.

In 1985 Simon Yates took the decision to cut a rope that joined him to his climbing partner Joe Simpson while climbing Siula Grande, in the Peruvian Andes. Believing Mr Simpson to be dead on the end of the rope, Mr Yates was slowly being pulled off the mountain while losing all feeling in his hands. He then made the stark decision to cut the rope that joined them in order to save his own life – a story retold in Touching the Void, a BAFTA award-winning film that made both men household names. Since that fateful expedition Mr Yates has gone on to climb in some of the most remote and rarely explored mountain ranges of the world.

Now Mr Yates will be recounting some of his adventures when he brings his My Mountain Life talk to The Witham, on October 9, at 7.30pm. Mr Yates said: “I’m really looking forward to coming and sharing my mountain adventures with an audience at The Witham.

“It’s certainly a beautiful part of the country for me to visit – hopefully I might get a chance to visit the amazing High Force waterfall on my way over.”

For tickets, contact The Witham on 01833 631107.