Here I have combined data from my previous image of the Cygnus wall with some 5m exposures that I took a few days earlier (and failed to properly frame the wall). Rather than waste these, I’ve combined the data to provide a heavily cropped portion, which I’ve titled ‘touching the void’.
This after the famous book, and later film, by British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, where they describe the circumstances and extraordinary decisions that led to their survival after falling on their descent from the 20,814 foot peak of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. I won’t spoil it, apart from to say he isn’t known as ‘Simon the knife’ for no reason…
This poorly framed image from the ridge of the Cygnus wall, reminds me of those pictures looking down from mountain peaks, at dawn, as the storm gathers, into the void below. I’m no mountaineer, but I’ve met a few, and perhaps this image would give them that thrill of challenge and danger that drives them in their high altitude adventures.
I post this image in tribute to a friend and man of the high peaks - an eminent mountaineer,
Rick Allen who lost his life in an avalanche while attempting a new route on K2 in 2021.
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