Deep Play
Climbing and mountaineering has changed a lot in the past 20 years, and so has the literature that becomes of it. Pre the 90’s expeditions to the big hills in particular, were reserved for the elite few of the world’s finest, or national campaigns.
The fall of the Soviet Union put an end to all that, as capitalism gripped the planet like never before, and anything and everything had its price, including mountains. It didn’t matter who you were, if you had the money, you could climb just about anywhere, and the prices were coming down. The age of global tourism.
Mountain literature reflected this change with a wave of ego-centred autobiographies by wealthy adventurers detailing each camp up, each Sherpa who carried what when and each fixed rope placement to the world’s highest summits.
Let’s hope this is not the future of the sport or its written genre. But hope there is. Hope lies is fingertips of the likes of Paul Pritchard, a British climber and his contribution to mountain literature ‘Deep Play’.
It may be twelve years on since the date of publication, but the book remains an inspiration of creative writing, based on a life-passion for climbing by one of the world’s most talented climbers.
It’s rare to come across such a combination, and was recognized and celebrated at the time, winning the prestigious Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature.
The book, a collection of essays written by Pritchard over his climbing career is modest yet severe in its accomplishment, taking the reader not only through the climbs detailed, but into the head of the climber, his motivations, fears, feelings and desires.
It’s all together human and down to earth, yet radical at the same time. It is sensitive and vulnerable, and brave in its openness and honesty.
And all achieved on the dole. Let Pritchard’s message be a lesson to us all.
Soon after Pritchard published Deep Play, he sustained a severe head injury on a sea stack called the Totem Pole off the coast of Tasmania. His second book, entitled The Totem Pole is recounts the events of the accident and his journey of recovery in epic and heart rendering Pritchard style, and was as praised and celebrated as Deep Play. Both are essential reading and should be considered a set.
Deep Play, A climber’s Odyssey from Llanberis to the Big Walls was published by Baton Wicks and The Mountaineers in 1997. Find it on the net (Google Books, Amazon etc), or visit Paul’s web blog http://ppritchard.blogspot.com/