Storms of SilenceIn Storms of Silence Joe Simpson brings up to date, in the vivid anecdotal style of This Game of Ghosts, his thoughtful, funny and moving account of his maverick life as a mountaineer. But behind the rich tapestry of adventures lies a dark and brooding disquiet. He recalls the terrifying avalanche that nearly wiped out his base camp during an attempt on the unclimbed north face of Gangchempo in the Himalaya. While climbing on Cho Oyo he meets a band of Khampas, including a four-year-old boy, fleeing over the high Nangpa La pass from the brutality of Chinese oppression in Tibet. Joe's love of Himalayan life contrasts with the ruthless Chinese destruction of the Tibetan culture and people. A violent brush with a skinhead in his home town of Sheffield is mirrored in his chilling encounter with the Peruvian police. On Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain, he hears unnerving ghostly voices and learns of the earthquake which buried 18,000 people and wiped out the town of Yungay below him. It reminds him of his boyhood visit to the Nazi concentration camp at Belsen. The book ends with the trauma of reliving, in quite unexpected circumstances, the dance with death he described so vividly in his bestselling book Touching the Void. |
Contents
Introduction Inner Voices | 11 |
PART ONE I Throwing the Rice | 15 |
Walking Wounded | 28 |
Giving Up | 37 |
Body Language | 48 |
The Burning Ghats | 66 |
Fear of Flying | 82 |
A Walk on the Wild Side | 94 |
The Nangpa La | 180 |
Fools Rush In | 190 |
The Old Soldier | 209 |
PART TWO 17 Fit for Nothing | 219 |
A Dirty War | 229 |
Ghost Stories | 244 |
Collateral Damage | 252 |
First Ascent | 271 |
An Eye for a Tooth | 107 |
Arm and a Leg | 117 |
IO Bleak House | 128 |
When Terror Came | 140 |
Guilty as Charged | 158 |
The Crowing of the Cock | 168 |
Strange Connections | 281 |
Taken on Trust | 293 |
Acknowledgements | 302 |
Bibliography | 303 |
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Common terms and phrases
asked avalanche base camp beer began Bhote Kosi blue boulders Chinese Cho Oyo Chwang climbing clouds cold Cordillera Blanca crevasse Dalai Lama dark door Dudh Kosi eyes face feeling feet felt Gangchempo glacier hand happened hard head heard hillside Huaraz Huascaran huge Kathmandu Khampas Khumbu knee knew Lama Langtang laughed legs light lodge looked Lukla monastery moraines mountain muttered Namche Nangpa Nepal never nodded okay pain Palden Gyatso past path Peru Photo prayer flags realised Richard Rick ridge river rock rucksack seemed seracs shadows shelter Sherpani Sherpas Shining Path shoulders shouted side Simpson Siula Grande ski-sticks slopes smiled snow sort sound stared steep stone stood stream suddenly summit sure tent Thami thought thousand Tibet Tibetan torture trail trying turned valley village voices walked walls wanted watched wind woman wondered Yeah Yungay