Paul Pritchard - The Totem Pole: Surviving the ultimate adventure

First must come my family: for putting you through this I was deeply sorry. As I have, I hope you have found peace of mind and are now happy for me. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Celia Bull for saving my life, in more ways than one. I know you shy away from praise but it is down to your actions on that day that I have had and continue to have such a full life. And the same goes for Neale Smith. I am also eternally indebted to Sergeant Paul Steane and Ian Kingston and his crew for executing the rescue so faultlessly and to Andrew Davidson and Tom Jamieson for staying with me during those long hours. My thanks go to my surgeon James Van Gelder, and therapists Nicola Mackinnon, Dawn Lewis, Marge Conroy, Stormont Murray, Penny Croxford, Vera Simpson, Barbara Hartfall, Joy Hughes, Sian Hughes, Tricia Rodgers, Jill Chappel, Lise Satherley, Fiona Parry and Sue White for fixing me so well. To Sue Duff for support and understanding; and to Jane Boucher for putting me right on a thing or two. There are too many nurses and helpers to mention here or alas even remember (I have had a brain injury you know!) I thank you all.

My thanks to the film crew, John Whittle (rest well John), Dave Cuthbertson, Mark Diggins, Meg Wicks, Richard Else, Brian Hall and Keith Partridge who shepherded me back to the Totem Pole and to Steve Monks and Enga Lokey who climbed it for me! I am also indebted to Rod Staples for the loan of a tinny.

I also owe my appreciation to George Smith, Charlie Diamond and Gwion Hughes for reading the successive drafts of the manuscript, to Maggie Body for doing such an excellent job of editing my text, again (she edited Deep Play for me). Karen Plas Coch, thank you for giving me your book and pack of tarot cards, I am appreciative.

For the photographs, a great big cheers goes out to Simon Carter for supplying the excellent cover shot, with thanks again going to Brian Hall, Celia Bull and Dawn Lewis. Some photographs were lost between successive publisher mergers and so I am indebted to Matt Newton and Tim McFadden for help with image scanning. I am also grateful for the photographic inclusions of the Royal Hobart Hospital. New photographic inclusions are by Bill Hatcher, George Smith, Zoe Wilkinson, Richard Else, Sergeant Paul Steane, Tasmanian Police, and the Mercury newspaper. I must also thank Ben Lyon at Lyon Equipment for his unceasing patronage back then and DMM Wales and Mountain Equipment for their unceasing patronage right now.

For this new edition, I want to thank Melinda Oogjes for being such a steadfast rock, always being there for me; and Jeffrey Blake for managing me so well (I realise that I am quite a handful sometimes). Catherine Pettman, Matthew Newton and for your sound advice and all round awesomeness, and that goes for Andrew Hopwood too. I would like to thank Conrad Anker for penning a kind foreword. Nevertheless, this edition would certainly not have been possible without generosity of all the #Pozible crowd-funders. Thank you, all of you, for affirming my faith in the innate goodness of human beings. These people are:

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