The Flame of Adventure

by Simon Yates

Simon Yates is probably best known, much to his chagrin, as "the guy who cut the rope" on Joe Simpson during their descent of a new route on the West Face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. In Flame of Adventure, Yates touches on this famous story and shares his perspective on climbing styles; he also shares tales of personal embarrassment, childhood experiences, and the different cultures he has encountered in his travels. He looks at himself through the eyes of "civilization," talking about using his climbing skills while working on a construction site and the terror his apparent risks triggers in other workers. He, in turn, is amazed by their perspective. This is the story of a man who lives on an adventurous, dangerous edge, frightening to many. Yet, Yates observes, countless people who once opted for safe 9-to-5 existences are now turning to extreme sports in order to put some excitement into their lives. From the Karakorum to the Eiger, Yates' accounts of his adventures both thrill and entertain. On a climb of Lobsang II he and a friend realized they had stopped short of the true summit. Rather than continue, they decided to sit in the sun and enjoy the view, and then to simply descend. Through such anecdotes Yates reflects on what matters to him and what adventure is, as well as why he and so many others find it crucial to a life well lived. Simon Yates is a British climber and has climbed with Greg Child, Doug Scott, Andy Cave, and other prominent climbers. He has worked as a mountain guide and now lectures and runs commercial expeditions. His first book, Against the Wall, was shortlisted for the Boardman-Tasker Award.

Genres: Mountaineering, Nonfiction, Biography, Climbing, Adventure

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Simon Yates is an internationally acclaimed mountaineer, adventurer and author best known for his involvement in the epic described in Joe Simpson's book 'Touching the Void'.

In a prolific career spanning nearly thirty years Simon has climbed worldwide with many of Britain's leading mountaineers including Andy Cave, Mick Fowler,Andy Parkin, Paul Pritchard and Doug Scott, establishing many first ascents in the process. He is the author of three books: Against the Wall (Vintage 1997), The Flame of Adventure (Vintage 2001) and most recently The Wild Within (Vertibrate Publishing 2012)

In addition to mountaineering and writing, Simon is a popular lecturer and runs a commercial expedition company - Mountain Dream. He lives in Cumbria with his wife, daughter and son.

Reviews

[Glen]

Simon Yates tells us about his early years as a climber, climbing little known peaks in Asia. Also we hear of the sky scraper workers in London. All in all, informative, but not something I'd want to imitate.

[Tressa]

After reading Joe Simpson's books, I had a hankering to learn more about Simon Yates, the man who will always be known by many as "the man who cut the rope."

Yates has said many times that the Siula Grande incident was just a blip in his climbing career, and this interesting book proves it. Simon went on to climb many bigger and more challenging mountains and forged a solid, well-respected mountaineering career. He also commercially guides, and I'd love to go on one of his trips, but my arms are like noodles and I have poor stamina. In other words, I'm lazy.

I enjoyed learning about Simon's early years and how he became interested in climbing. I'm still laughing about the hazing incident at his construction job where someone put up a big wanted poster about Yates being a mad "slasher." There weren't too many men who wanted to partner with Yates on a rope around the site.

A good read!

[Nigel]

A reasonably easy read about an interesting climber (this is the guy who cut the rope in Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival) though the number of climbs covered in the book means that relatively little space is devoted to each climb. He is obviously a very dedicated climbing type with a fair degree of disdain for the rest of the world. Equally a number of his attempts are not entirely successful - it certainly feels as though he is dogged by some degree of bad luck although there are times when his approach suggests the accident is waiting to happen. While I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in climbing books sadly the author does not come over all that well to me - driven climbers have a reputation for being less than easy to get on with.

[James]

Having read far too many mountaineering books over the years I found the parts of this book I really enjoyed were chapters which filled in the time between expeditions. Stuff most authors don't find interesting enough to talk about. Part time jobs Simon worked, places he lived and 'normal' holidays he would go on.
Fascinating to know how the climbers operate when back in the real world, finding work in construction using their roping skills and working as bicycle couriers to help keep their fitness up. It's these chapters which separated this book from those I've read previous to this.
Recommended read from "the guy who cut the rope" ;)

[Sam Christie]

A good and relatively quick read. It's an exciting collection of Simon's many unique experiences, from mountaineering to working on skyscrapers. I'll admit that I am not as into climbing literature as I used to be and I still struggle with some of the jargon, so that got a bit dull at times. That's just my personal preferences though. It was well-written and the right people will absolutely love it. His philosophies on adventure were the highlights for me, and what I hoped for when I saw the title - the 5 page epilogue is one of the best parts of the whole book for me. Glad I read it!

[James]

I really liked his book, his admiration for the mountains and his secret will to pursue what in his mind what life be. His perspective on doing what he loved is top notched. I enjoyed his travels to the Himalaya and beyond to find himself. Cutting the rope on Joe Simpson in "Touching The Void" was never an issue, Simon wanted to climb, and explore the world. Tribute to mountaineers who want to pursue a life not filled with money, but a respect for life, adventure, and just to climb mountains. That in the end is what Simon loved, being an adventurer and being in the mountains he loved.

[Cass]

I bought this book at a talk Simon gave about his career and to have met him was amazing. He was actually an incredibly humble man despite all the amazing things he has done. Simon Yates got the absolute privilege of seeing the climbing world become what it is today and reading these tales of adventures from bygone eras is just the inspiration needed to start planning my next adventure.

[Morbhen MacRath]

Meh. I found it sporadically engrossing and indulgent with a good measure of angst. There are better mountaineering/travel books out there.

[Douglas Law]

Some entertaining but dangerous adventures.

[Matt Kendal]

Coming out the back of some heavy russian literature it was a welcome break, some nice honest accounts of his early climbing and first ascents.

[chucklesthescot]

Simon talks about some of the climbs that he has done and his new experience of Russian snow holes that can house dozens of climbers, and the dodgy safety equipment they were using. He talks about meeting Joe Simpson and dealing with the attention after Joe's infamous accident, climbing in Pakistan with a dodgy stomach and tackling the North Face of the Eiger.

While I enjoy his climbing tales, I do find Simon and his friends to be reckless and careless about their health, and with safety issues. The Dangerous Eating Game was designed to see who would get sick after eating at filthy street stalls. The lack of basic hygience led to hepatitus and losing the chance to climb Makalu with some top climbers. They do things on the cheap, never prepare properly so they always forget something vital and behave like utter idiots.

Mark is reckless and selfish, never pulling his weight, causing injury to others and getting beaten up by taxi drivers because he has no money to pay the fares. I hate people who act like that. He was trying to cheat the taxi driver out of what was owed to him-the guy has a living to make and shouldn't be treated that way by arrogant Brits who think they can do what they like. Simon is just plain rude, barking orders at people in Thailand as if he is something special to be obeyed, then moaning that the people there are not to his taste because they expect to receive polite requests instead. Yeah, another example of British arrogance towards others.

As I said I like the climbing stories but I don't like the writer and his friends much so I'll be giving future books by him a miss.

[Bob]

This book is less expedidtion detailed then many I've read. Most of the "adventure" books I've read have generally focused on a particular expedition or of an author's experiences on a particular mountain over the course of several seasons. There seemed to be to be a lot less of technical information on routes/gear/techniques then in most books I've read. This may be a plus for non-climbers. Simon seems almost to be giving a travelogue of his life and trying to explain to the reader the aspects of adventure that appeal to him. For the non-climber, or the potential reader who feels that they are less adventuresome I would recommend reading the epilogue first.

[Tomek]

Poor Simon. He shall forever be known as the guy who cut the rope on Joe Simpson. I believe Simon wrote this book to cash in on some of the acclaim (and money) being made by Joe, but alas, he is not nearly as good a writer. While I may not always appreciate the melodrama that infuses Simpson's writing, at least it is compelling. Yates' writing is straightforward and fairly dull. The stories themselves are interesting, but they lack any kind of substance that I appreciate from the more poetic mountaineer-writers.

[Sunny Remington]

A story about a man and his climbing career. Inspirational in a kind of 'life is short, go do it now' kind of way.

[Garrett Tucker]

Not as compelling as 'Touching the Void' but excellent read nonethless.

[Tiago]

The author is self-absorbed, quick to be judgemental, and certainly seems to have a chip on his shoulder. The book jumps around from adventure to adventure with no real flow or overall theme.

[Mauro Bonino]

it s my life... a people like me