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The Mountain Path
‘All I wanted to do was go to sleep. And I was certain that if I did drift off, it would be for the last time.’
In 1998, Paul Pritchard was struck on the head by a falling rock as he climbed a sea stack in Tasmania called the Totem Pole. Close to death, waiting for hours for rescue, Pritchard kept himself going with a promise that given the chance, he would ‘at least attempt to live’.
Left hemiplegic by his injury, Pritchard has spent the last two decades attempting to live, taking on adventures that seemed impossible for someone so badly injured while plumbing the depths of a mind almost snuffed out by his passion for climbing.
Not content to simply survive, Pritchard finds ways to return to his old life, cycling across Tibet and expanding his mind on gruelling meditation courses, revisiting the past and understanding his compulsion for risk. Finally, he returns to climb the Totem Pole, the place where his life was almost extinguished.
The Mountain Path is an adventure book like no other, an exploration of a healing brain, a journey into philosophy and psychology, a test of will and a triumph of hope.
In 1998, Paul Pritchard was struck on the head by a falling rock as he climbed a sea stack in Tasmania called the Totem Pole. Close to death, waiting for hours for rescue, Pritchard kept himself going with a promise that given the chance, he would ‘at least attempt to live’.
Left hemiplegic by his injury, Pritchard has spent the last two decades attempting to live, taking on adventures that seemed impossible for someone so badly injured while plumbing the depths of a mind almost snuffed out by his passion for climbing.
Not content to simply survive, Pritchard finds ways to return to his old life, cycling across Tibet and expanding his mind on gruelling meditation courses, revisiting the past and understanding his compulsion for risk. Finally, he returns to climb the Totem Pole, the place where his life was almost extinguished.
The Mountain Path is an adventure book like no other, an exploration of a healing brain, a journey into philosophy and psychology, a test of will and a triumph of hope.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published October 7, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 19, 2021
Within the first chapter Paul very eloquently sets out what this book is all about.
'....my aim with this book is for you and me to go on an arduous pilgrimage of self- discovery.....This journey will not be comfortable or safe....but.......it will change the way you see things....'.
'I have learnt much from the wild places I have wandered through and the mountains I have climbed......I doubt I would have survived that day on the Totem Pole....without that knowledge, gained in the mountains....'
'........living with paralysis ....has actually improved my life........this catastrophic brain injury is the single best thing that ever happened to me. It has given me a new perspective on life. It has led me to a markedly different philosophy.'
'This book, then, is a personal reflection on my relationship with The Mountain and the qualities this partnership has fostered within me, to meet a new life with new challenges at each moment'
Well if that's not enough to intrigue you and get you reading then maybe it's not the book for you.
This is not your normal climber's biography. You know that you are about to read something different and significant. With chapters entitled Freedom, Pilgrimage, Pain, Fear, Pain and Death you know you are on a journey, a journey through Paul's reflection on his life. Moving on we reach the real philosophical sections with Stillness, The Approach, Preparation, The Climb and The Bottomless Chasm all leading us through his journey of discovery to summit on the Totem Pole. A wonderful journey.
The Mountain Path is part memoir, part meditation on the power of the mountains to help heal a damaged brain, a journey into philosophy.
We hear of Paul's earliest memoirs of adventures, often undertaken with his Mum, most striking being their near death experience on the Witch's Step in Arran and his attempt to swim a Scottish loch smeared in Vick's VapoRub because he'd seen channel swimmers coat themselves in Vaseline, but had none available - must have smelled nice though! After a wayward youth he was taken under the wing of Mr Wooley, his Physics teacher, who introduces him to climbing in a local quarry. That same Harold Wooley proudly introduces Paul at a lecture following his Mount Asgard ascent with the quip that 'I taught Paul everything'.
The biographical content continues with a selection of other significant points in his life and adventures undertaken including tales of cycling from Lhasa to Kathmandu, his fall off Centre Post Direct on Creag Meagaidh, para climbing at Lake Garda and another near death fall at Gogarth in which he nearly drowned. These are well linked by the well written, although at times quite heavy, philosophical reflections and learnings. These latter chapters have some beautiful superbly well written, often poetic sections with an intense focus on tiny details of hold selection, preparations for climbing and climbing superstitions.
A great read. To be recommended for climbers and non climbers alike.
'....my aim with this book is for you and me to go on an arduous pilgrimage of self- discovery.....This journey will not be comfortable or safe....but.......it will change the way you see things....'.
'I have learnt much from the wild places I have wandered through and the mountains I have climbed......I doubt I would have survived that day on the Totem Pole....without that knowledge, gained in the mountains....'
'........living with paralysis ....has actually improved my life........this catastrophic brain injury is the single best thing that ever happened to me. It has given me a new perspective on life. It has led me to a markedly different philosophy.'
'This book, then, is a personal reflection on my relationship with The Mountain and the qualities this partnership has fostered within me, to meet a new life with new challenges at each moment'
Well if that's not enough to intrigue you and get you reading then maybe it's not the book for you.
This is not your normal climber's biography. You know that you are about to read something different and significant. With chapters entitled Freedom, Pilgrimage, Pain, Fear, Pain and Death you know you are on a journey, a journey through Paul's reflection on his life. Moving on we reach the real philosophical sections with Stillness, The Approach, Preparation, The Climb and The Bottomless Chasm all leading us through his journey of discovery to summit on the Totem Pole. A wonderful journey.
The Mountain Path is part memoir, part meditation on the power of the mountains to help heal a damaged brain, a journey into philosophy.
We hear of Paul's earliest memoirs of adventures, often undertaken with his Mum, most striking being their near death experience on the Witch's Step in Arran and his attempt to swim a Scottish loch smeared in Vick's VapoRub because he'd seen channel swimmers coat themselves in Vaseline, but had none available - must have smelled nice though! After a wayward youth he was taken under the wing of Mr Wooley, his Physics teacher, who introduces him to climbing in a local quarry. That same Harold Wooley proudly introduces Paul at a lecture following his Mount Asgard ascent with the quip that 'I taught Paul everything'.
The biographical content continues with a selection of other significant points in his life and adventures undertaken including tales of cycling from Lhasa to Kathmandu, his fall off Centre Post Direct on Creag Meagaidh, para climbing at Lake Garda and another near death fall at Gogarth in which he nearly drowned. These are well linked by the well written, although at times quite heavy, philosophical reflections and learnings. These latter chapters have some beautiful superbly well written, often poetic sections with an intense focus on tiny details of hold selection, preparations for climbing and climbing superstitions.
A great read. To be recommended for climbers and non climbers alike.
September 23, 2021
This book is framed by a climb - The Totem Pole. It is a climb which has shaped the author's life in countless ways, both since his first attempt to climb it which ended in a life-changing accident, and his more recent successful ascent, 18 years later, dealing with the limitations of hemiplegia and the trauma of his previous attempt. And in between, a great deal of learning has clearly taken place.
And yet this is not a climbing book, despite being about a climber and a climb. It is a philosophy book and it is about how you go about living. In it, Pritchard seeks the source of his drive to climb. He interrogates how we can find freedom within the confines of a single line on a mountain and analyses what choice can mean. He finds truth in splinters of other climbs and in other accidents, focuses in on the tiniest of details in intensely mindful passages, faces death head on, and seeks discipline in Buddhism and the monotonous turning of pedals.
And yet, perhaps, Pritchard stops short of asking what drives his philosophical quest itself. Perhaps that does not matter. The act of reading this book feels in many ways like a meditation, living each moment along with its author. Within Pritchard's pathway of self-discovery, the reader can find self-knowledge of their own. A section of "Further Reading" may help them to continue to do so.
And yet this is not a climbing book, despite being about a climber and a climb. It is a philosophy book and it is about how you go about living. In it, Pritchard seeks the source of his drive to climb. He interrogates how we can find freedom within the confines of a single line on a mountain and analyses what choice can mean. He finds truth in splinters of other climbs and in other accidents, focuses in on the tiniest of details in intensely mindful passages, faces death head on, and seeks discipline in Buddhism and the monotonous turning of pedals.
And yet, perhaps, Pritchard stops short of asking what drives his philosophical quest itself. Perhaps that does not matter. The act of reading this book feels in many ways like a meditation, living each moment along with its author. Within Pritchard's pathway of self-discovery, the reader can find self-knowledge of their own. A section of "Further Reading" may help them to continue to do so.
October 5, 2021
Gripping and thought provoking - a meditation on what it means to climb and to suffer loss whilst doing so.
Almost a philosophical treatise on the nature of risk, loss and how to go on living life after it feels like it has changed so fundamentally you maybe don't understand it as you did before. The book distils down the essence of climbing for me - the physical and mental freedom to be found in pursuing a vertical line up a mountain face.
The author's own experiences are echoed in examples of other climbs and incidents with an intense focus on tiny details which is utterly absorbing and as another reviewer has said, almost meditative.
Almost a philosophical treatise on the nature of risk, loss and how to go on living life after it feels like it has changed so fundamentally you maybe don't understand it as you did before. The book distils down the essence of climbing for me - the physical and mental freedom to be found in pursuing a vertical line up a mountain face.
The author's own experiences are echoed in examples of other climbs and incidents with an intense focus on tiny details which is utterly absorbing and as another reviewer has said, almost meditative.
October 9, 2021
This is a truly extraordinary book, which given Paul Pritchard is an extraordinarily person should have come as no surprise. It visits so many places on The Mountain Path its hard to describe. It’s a biography which starts on the Witches Step on Arran and finishes at the Totem Pole in Tasmania by way of the bar in the Paddarn, but the journey is as much of Paul’s mind as of any physical place. For those who are obsessed with the Mountains it’s a must read and helps unravel the often unconscious motivations that drive our passion.
January 2, 2022
A really thought-provoking and insightful reflection from someone who has explored and come to understand why we go to the mountains through his own experiences. Definitely a book that you can appreciate without being a climber.
December 1, 2022
Unusually, I find myself unsure how to review this book. I found some parallels with myself, as someone who once climbed and can't for now, albeit I never climbed as hard as him, and he is much further along his philosophical journey than me. Maybe this is why I had the feeling that this book is important, but unable to quite understand why.
Even before the Totem Pole, the author came across as more thoughtful than most climbing writers and the intervening decades seem to have intensified that. Maybe all climbers are seeking something and Pritchard has figured out better than most what he was after.
The fonts on the cover emphasis Mountain over Path, and the author frequently refers to the former in the text, but its really the latter that he writes about. Pritchard has, or some level believes he has, had a glimpse of something profound but the way he accessed it is no longer open to him. He is trying to find the way back, using whatever tools are available to him. I can't help feeling that he determination and courage remain undiminished, not least in his willingness to look inside himself as well as his physical adventures.
And yet... at times he feels a little crazy, maybe a good crazy, but still crazy. I have no idea how to take his description of his out of body experiences: they make me think of drug addled hallucinations, but I know they are more credible than that.
All this makes the book a really interesting read, an insight into someone's physical and metaphysical struggles. Maybe they will help you with yours. For me, it may take another reading...
Even before the Totem Pole, the author came across as more thoughtful than most climbing writers and the intervening decades seem to have intensified that. Maybe all climbers are seeking something and Pritchard has figured out better than most what he was after.
The fonts on the cover emphasis Mountain over Path, and the author frequently refers to the former in the text, but its really the latter that he writes about. Pritchard has, or some level believes he has, had a glimpse of something profound but the way he accessed it is no longer open to him. He is trying to find the way back, using whatever tools are available to him. I can't help feeling that he determination and courage remain undiminished, not least in his willingness to look inside himself as well as his physical adventures.
And yet... at times he feels a little crazy, maybe a good crazy, but still crazy. I have no idea how to take his description of his out of body experiences: they make me think of drug addled hallucinations, but I know they are more credible than that.
All this makes the book a really interesting read, an insight into someone's physical and metaphysical struggles. Maybe they will help you with yours. For me, it may take another reading...
December 21, 2022
Took me a few chapters to work out how to read this book. Secret was to read an entire chapter at a time with no breaks or distractions around. Paul gets very deep into the philosophy in a way that was really grounded in tangible experiences which I found refreshing from other things that border on mysticism. It was also just interesting to read the experiences of someone who suffered such a catastrophic injury and the mental journey he’s been on as a result.
August 14, 2023
This adventure biography is secretly a philosophy book in disguise, and much better for it! Packed with really interesting ideas from a really interesting guy.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews