enCopyright: (C) 2012 Joe Simpson Full length articles by Joe Simpson. http://www.noordinaryjoe.com erwerf http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item15.asp Intro http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item13.asp Joe is now back from the Eiger and has kindly provided us with a diary of his time filming The Beckoning Silence there. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item12.asp I was asked to write something for the site before Christmas. I squealed and protested. Admin insisted - one thousand words, two at the most. It occurred to me that it was a long time since I had written anything for the website. So I wrote something. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item11.asp Joe Simpson, climber and author of 'Touching The Void', reveals how climate change is destroying the world's most spectacular landscapes Publication Independent Date 05/11/2005 Article Copyright - © Joe Simpson, http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item10.asp "I am sorry to have left it so long before adding something to the web site. It has been a strange and taxing year; one that only now am I beginning to enjoy retrospectively...." http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item2.asp Stephanie Sanders interviewed the star and author of the international best selling novel Touching the Void, Joe Simpson. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item3.asp I was absolutely stunned that we won a BAFTA and still cannot quite believe it - a great compliment to everyone who worked so hard to make the film under such difficult conditions. To beat big budget films like Cold Mountain (saw it last week) Girl with a Pearl ear-ring and Love Actually was a shock. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item4.asp I am currently in Denver en-route to Chicago and then Boston coming to the end of a manic 2 week publicity tour of the States. In fact I have been promoting the film in the UK, France and the US since mid October and should have completed a total of 200 interviews totalling some 100 hours of endlessly answered questions by the time I get home on the 31st January. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item5.asp Last year an unfortunate accident in a Swiss canyon claimed 21 lives. Sad but these things happen. It may have been avoidable and doubtless an enquiry will reveal whether this was the case. Appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that, if at all possible, that it doesn't happen again and that's how it should be. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item9.asp Waterfall ice climbing is a strangely addictive pastime. It arouses in me a host of conflicting emotions giving rise to questions to which I have no answer. The most prominent of these questions is 'Why are you doing this, you idiot?' This usually panicked thought normally howls through my mind as I reach a horrifying point of no return on some monstrous icy crumbling edifice. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item8.asp Chances are you're reading this feature because of the title. Death sells, the Eiger sells - death and the Eiger in one article hits the jackpot. And that, of course, is why the popular press covers climbing accidents - to sell more copies, make more profit. But that's no excuse to play fast and loose with the facts. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item6.asp 'Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigour of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life.' Unknown. http://www.noordinaryjoe.co.uk/article_item7.asp