It could have multiple meanings, but the one I tend to focus on is the fact that the mountaineers are operating in an environment, that rarely ever sustains, let alone encourages human life. There is little air, the dangers of frostbite are all too apparent, a change in weather can mean a change in fortunes, and as we see in this film, a slip can mean the difference between life and death.🐭
shareI'm sure the title can have a variety of meanings, hard to say exactly what the name was chosen for.
To me the void is referring to death, so touching the void would mean skirting the line between aliveness and death.
When he broke his leg, he knew his situation was without any reasonable hope of survival. He was an experienced climber, he knew getting off the mountain by youself even when not injured was low. But with a broken leg... there's just nothing to suggest you could survive getting down.
He was forced to accept his mortality, accept that he was going to die, and from that act he gained the strength to go on, by choosing other goals than survival. He wanted to "die trying", to see how far his physical limits could be pushed. He talked about wanting to at least get his body somewhere that it could be found by someone eventually. Like writing a final letter to the world when you know you're going to die. That's a motivation you only see when someone has accepted the inevitability of their death.
When faced with his situation, of knowing you have pretty much zero possibility of surving, I would bet more than 99.9% of the human population would just give up and go to sleep in the snow. You stop feeling the cold quickly, and loss of consciousness and death come a piece at a time. I've heard lots of people talk about running out of energy in the cold and how painless and relaxing it is to just lay down and stop caring.
Trying when you know there is no rational reason to believe you could survive, that's hard to even imagine... that's hardcore determination and willpower right there. This man is heroic to me.
He didn't just touch the void, he said "*beep* you" to the void and kept going...