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The Totem Pole is a 65-metre dolerite sea-stack rising out of the Southern Ocean, prehistorically squished between towering walls on either side, and a stones’ throw from the Tasmanian mainland. This climb has made and broken generations of climbers while standing in defiance at a world that continues to evolve and its people that are always hurried.
Then there is Paul Pritchard. This rock and that man are inextricably linked, and this read is bookended with that climb. In 1998 Paul’s skull was smashed and his brain damaged by the impact of a rock which fell from the Tote leaving him with hemiplegia, and at times heartache, along with a search to find himself as an adaptive person. Like the Totem Pole’s geography, he too has been caught between the mainland of the man he once was and a new world that has lit a candle in his soul. The Tote was the reason, but the candlestick - what he has found on the subsequent journey - is his resolve. Introduced by Hazel Findlay, this is a story of a climber’s search for meaning and an explanation of the fire that continues to burn within his soul lighting his way and inadvertently lighting others as well. |
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Paul describes this journey as The Mountain Path. The title is fitting. The reader will follow what Paul has discovered on his journey in the subsequent years since that fateful day. But here is a key point of the read, he does not acknowledge his accident and injury on the Tote as a tragedy, he sees it as a rebirth.
The learnings from that day, the experiences he has had in getting to know this new Paul, and the friends he has met along the way, are companions on this journey. He freely shares a bunch of adventurers that have been markers in his quest for understanding. In this book the climber ventures deep into his soul and shares the mountains in ways climbers rarely experience in mountain literature. There is a reason for this; you need time to reflect, process, and accept what the winds and the tides, what the rarefied air, the changing face of the rock, and the relationships that storm and norm up there bring.
The Mountain Path takes a divergent route; the experience is not the star of this contemplative read; the star is the inner journey and what is garnered from it. For Paul, time in the mountains still continue to bring existential adventure, just a little slower than most, but they do continue. He is a stubborn bugger. However, because of his ability to spend this extra time on a belay, in his bike seat, or with a monk or a stranger - because his brain takes longer to process information - he listens more acutely and follows up on what he has learnt. In turn, Paul contemplates the highs and lows of life and seeks out routes through precarious mental and physical country, from which we ourselves, can find peace in the learnings.
With a degree in Theology, a long life in the Mountains, and from having a brain injury myself, I have read the classics in philosophy and theology. I have muddled my way through Plato’s Cave, de-littering my mind with Augustine in the Desert and sitting exposed reading Victor Franco’s, Man's Search for Meaning. I am a devoted lover of mountaineering literature with The Freedom of The Hills, and of course, Touching the Void standing proudly in my collection. I have laid in a rehabilitation ward and been forced to face "who am I?"
Paul Pritchard's book, The Mountain Path: A Climber’s Journey Through Life and Death, provides meaning to things that I myself have contemplated. It comprehends and explores mountain spirituality at a higher level than I have yet been exposed to and is written in a way that is simply Paul’s. In this book, Paul has risen to great literary heights that I believe is as fresh as any summit you might strive for. The Mountain Path is a welcome addition to both classic and modern philosophy. It is a Sophie’s World for mountaineers.
Paul’s is a life well lived and his injury provided him a key to explore the whisper that we hear when climbing. They are the passages of a wise man, a man who knows he does not know, but shares what he has found without need for favour; he does it with love.
I recommend that climbers and lovers of wisdom read and take rest in the knowledge gained while you walk The Mountain Path with Paul. This is not just a book, it is a classic that you will return to at intervals in your own mountain journey and its beautiful words will provide a guidebook that does not age and edges that do not crumble. This path will continue to enlighten as you seek understanding of those whispers that the mountain shares with you. They are calling me now.
Namaste.
The learnings from that day, the experiences he has had in getting to know this new Paul, and the friends he has met along the way, are companions on this journey. He freely shares a bunch of adventurers that have been markers in his quest for understanding. In this book the climber ventures deep into his soul and shares the mountains in ways climbers rarely experience in mountain literature. There is a reason for this; you need time to reflect, process, and accept what the winds and the tides, what the rarefied air, the changing face of the rock, and the relationships that storm and norm up there bring.
The Mountain Path takes a divergent route; the experience is not the star of this contemplative read; the star is the inner journey and what is garnered from it. For Paul, time in the mountains still continue to bring existential adventure, just a little slower than most, but they do continue. He is a stubborn bugger. However, because of his ability to spend this extra time on a belay, in his bike seat, or with a monk or a stranger - because his brain takes longer to process information - he listens more acutely and follows up on what he has learnt. In turn, Paul contemplates the highs and lows of life and seeks out routes through precarious mental and physical country, from which we ourselves, can find peace in the learnings.
With a degree in Theology, a long life in the Mountains, and from having a brain injury myself, I have read the classics in philosophy and theology. I have muddled my way through Plato’s Cave, de-littering my mind with Augustine in the Desert and sitting exposed reading Victor Franco’s, Man's Search for Meaning. I am a devoted lover of mountaineering literature with The Freedom of The Hills, and of course, Touching the Void standing proudly in my collection. I have laid in a rehabilitation ward and been forced to face "who am I?"
Paul Pritchard's book, The Mountain Path: A Climber’s Journey Through Life and Death, provides meaning to things that I myself have contemplated. It comprehends and explores mountain spirituality at a higher level than I have yet been exposed to and is written in a way that is simply Paul’s. In this book, Paul has risen to great literary heights that I believe is as fresh as any summit you might strive for. The Mountain Path is a welcome addition to both classic and modern philosophy. It is a Sophie’s World for mountaineers.
Paul’s is a life well lived and his injury provided him a key to explore the whisper that we hear when climbing. They are the passages of a wise man, a man who knows he does not know, but shares what he has found without need for favour; he does it with love.
I recommend that climbers and lovers of wisdom read and take rest in the knowledge gained while you walk The Mountain Path with Paul. This is not just a book, it is a classic that you will return to at intervals in your own mountain journey and its beautiful words will provide a guidebook that does not age and edges that do not crumble. This path will continue to enlighten as you seek understanding of those whispers that the mountain shares with you. They are calling me now.
Namaste.
Find The Mountain Path: A Climber's Journey Through Life and Death in hardcover or Kindle.