Paul Pritchard
was born in Bolton, Lancashire, in 1967 and, at
age 16 began a life of climbing. He soon moved to North Wales
and that Mecca of rock climbing Llanberis. By 1986 Paul was
climbing the top grade of the day. He began a life of
mountaineering that would take him to the Indian Himalaya, the
Pakistani Karakorum, Patagonia, Baffin Island, The Pamirs, the
European Alps and the American Rockies.
When he won the Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature,
with
Deep Play, in 1997
he spent the prize money on a world climbing tour that found
him in Tasmania climbing a slender sea stack known as The
Totem Pole. It was here that all that he had known before was
turned on its head.
On
Friday the 13th of February 1998 a TV sized boulder falling
from 25 meters inflicted such terrible head injuries that
doctors thought he might never walk or even speak again.
Pritchard has spent his time since that accident coping
with the hemiplegia which has robbed his right side of
movement and for years played tricks with his speech and
memory.
However, he is making a remarkable recovery and re-directing
his life in continually rewarding ways. He has returned to
roped climbing again and has ascended Kilimanjaro. Paul's
inspiring lecture gives the message to people that life
doesn't have to stop with the trauma injury or disability.
images: (top) Ray Wood
(bottom) Paul Pritchard.
