Pg 63 Japanese climbers
“To his horror, he had then seen the falling leader jerk and twist and, without a sound, pull his partner into the void.”
This quote has two different parts to it. There is a literal part and a figurative which comes after. In this first part Joe is describing what Simon would have seen during a climbing in the french alps. He is talking about a pair of Japanese climbers that were ascending at the same time as Simon and his partner (Jon). The quote shows one of the dangers that you can face while trying to climb a mountain. This is of course falling.
“To his horror”. This part of the quote suggests that seeing the climbers falling is disturbing to see, which it would be. Seeing an event like what is described would psychologically affect you after and make you think about how vulnerable you actually are when climbing a mountain. You could fall down at any time. The climber is then described as jerking and twisting while he is falling. The thought of falling down 2500 feet to your death is horrifying, so much so that anybody in this situation would not be able to think about it, but instead show a physical outburst in fear/distress. “without a sound” The quotation further supports that it is extremely hard to process the thought of dying because the Japanese climber cannot even scream while falling.
“pull his partner into the void”. This is the Figurative part to the whole quote. It could be thought that Joe is referring to the massive space below the falling climber (or climbers). Alternatively it could be referring to desperation because hope would be lost in a situation such as this. Therefore there is a void of hope.
React!