Joe Simpson

Biography

Joe Simpson (Touching the Void) has drawn from his experiences as one of the world`s most successful and respected mountaineers to become a leading author and motivational speaker. "Touching the Void", the story of his amazing survival, having shattered his leg and been left for dead in a crevasse high in the Andes, has sold over a million copies worldwide.

Joe Simpson now brings his knowledge and powerful stories to the corporate sector as an amazing motivational speaker that can be tailored to provide relevance and motivation for virtually every type of business audience. His presentations can be focused on a variety of topics including: - Teamwork, Leadership, Personal development, Risk assessment, Management style, and Training.

Having completed his first corporate speech Joe received phenomenal feedback: - "I am writing to heap enormous praise on Joe Simpson for the incredible motivational speaker presentation he gave. Joe added a new dimension to our meeting, not just through the power of his story, but also through his inspirational speaking qualities. We would have absolutely no reluctance in recommending Joe to anyone." National Sales Manager, Hoechst Marion Roussel. Thirteen years later, Joe Simpson has developed a reputation on the speaking circuit, which is second to none.

Following the sale of the movie rights of Touching the Void to Tom Cruise`s and Sally Field`s movie company, the rights to a 90 minute drama documentary were sold to the independent producers Darlow Smithson, working for Channel 4 and PBS. It has been distributed in the UK cinemas by Pathe and in the USA by IFC. The drama documentary film of Touching the Void won the 2004 Baftas Outstanding British Film of the Year beating Cold Mountain, Love Actually and Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Evening Standard Best film of the year 2004. It is now officially the most successful documentary in British cinema history.

Promotional work for the film included extensive interviews, including BBC World News Hardtalk, Letterman and Oprah.

His sixth book, "The Beckoning Silence" , was published in January 2002 and was made into a stunning documentary that was first broadcast on C4 in October 2007. Touching the Void, the best-seller translated into 22 languages, won the Boardman Tasker Prize 1988, NCR Non fiction Award 1989, Deutsches Literaturpreis 1990, and Premio del Libro di Montagna 1993. It has sold over two million copies worldwide. He is also author of the novel The Water People and non-fiction works This Game of Ghosts, Storms of Silence and Dark Shadows Falling. To date all his books have been short-listed for the Boardman Tasker Prize. In late 2009, Joe re-visited the Himalaya range where, in a solo climb, he succeeded in conquering a new route on the southwest face of Mera. Joe`s second novel. The Sound of Gravity, was published in September 2011.

Having spoken to a wide variety of audiences of varying nationalities, Joe has consistently exceeded all expectations. His presentation as a motivational speaker supported by an "all action" introduction video and stunning photography.

Publications

Touching the Void:
The True Story of One Man`s Miraculous Survival

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.

The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave.

How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.

Titles

Touching the Void
Joe Simpson`s presentation, has become one of the all-time classics of mountaineering, hailed as an account of psychological, even philosophical witness of the rarest compulsion.

It is a tale of two men thrown into a nightmare of terrifying life and death choices and heartbreaking decisions. It is about agony and terror, courage and weakness. It tells of trust and friendship tested to the very limits of human endurance.

You need no special knowledge of mountain climbing to understand the many inspirational messages to be found in the telling of this powerful human drama.

It is about the triumph of the human spirit, the immense instinct to survive and the innate strength we have within us to succeed.

The appeal of Joe as a speaker is that he tells his story in an unassuming, articulate and often humorous style. He refrains from giving patronizing analogies between his exploits and the jobs of the people in the audience, preferring that they draw their own conclusions from the multitude of key messages that are wrapped up in his story. The overriding feeling is one of total amazement and that no matter how tough things may get, there is a way to not only come through it, but to achieve even greater goals.

Joe is able to do a certain amount of fine tuning, but it would not be possible, for example, to make the talk all about teamwork. You will find that his presentation deals with many issues that are important in just about every event, and certainly in the lives of every individual.

Touching the Void deals with planning, strategy, risk, teamwork, goal setting, leadership, responsibility, decision making, motivation and our ability to reach beyond what we thought was possible.