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"I'm alive," was the delighted shout last night from a tramper who clung to a cliff side, centimetres short of plummeting to his death. Scott Pauley, a New Zealander living in Sydney, was left hanging on for life and waiting hours for rescue yesterday after slipping down the side of a mountain.
After becoming separated from a walking companion, near Lake Roe in Fiordland National Park, Pauley tried to find his own way back to a hut. It led to a slip down a 20m chute, stopping short of falling off the edge of a cliff.
"I can't believe it. I can't believe I've only got scratches - and my arse is black and blue."
Pauley said he stopped to adjust his walking poles when he lost his companion, who continued on ahead. When he tried to catch up, he found himself off the walking track - and then slipped down a 2m bank. "I wasn't too happy with that."
Pauley tried walking along the cliff edge. "That sealed my fate."
Pauley slipped again, sliding down a grassy chute with nothing in front of him. "It was just open air. I couldn't see the lake but I could see the sides of the cliff, which was just a sheer drop."
As he slid, Pauley scrabbled at the ground around, searching for purchase.
"I sort of felt it wasn't my time to go. I thought, 'this isn't going to happen now', and I was grabbing on for dear life. There was a small ledge that broke my fall. I was on near-vertical ground." Pauley had enough room to stand, get his pack off and squat.
He estimated the ledge between him and a plunge down the cliff was only a few feet across, and on a steep slope that kept him feeling as if he was about to fall.
After half-an-hour of waiting, he threw a rock over the edge to see how far down it was. He counted out two seconds before hearing it hit.
Pauley was able to get the Personal Emergency Locator Beacon he had rented for the tramp out of his pack and turned it on. He also pulled a yellow rain slicker across his pack, hoping it would be seen by the rescue helicopter.
The beacon was detected by satellite and picked up by rescue services, who began to search. "Without it, I wouldn't be here now."
After 90 minutes of sitting on the ledge, Pauley said he heard the helicopter. Two hours later, he was rescued. "I'm just happy to be alive, and extra happy I took my locator beacon."
He said the rescue team had told him he was the "pin-up boy" for locator beacons. "If it wasn't for that locator beacon, I wouldn't be here."
His first action on reaching safe ground was to ring his mum. "I couldn't get through. She'll read it in the papers tomorrow."
He then rang girlfriend Marketa Lukasova, 30, with whom he lives in Sydney. She hadn't expected to hear from him until his tramp had finished, on February 14.
The surprise early call was cut short when he ran out of phone credit. He was only able to tell her the trip was cut short because he needed to be rescued when the call cut out. Not surprisingly, Lukasova quickly rang back.
Last night, Pauley was staying in a backpackers' in Te Anau, still coming to terms with his brush with death. "I'm 33 shortly. Thank God I'll make it."
Meanwhile, a paraglider who crashed yesterday was lucky to escape with minor injuries after landing on a ledge just below the cliff edge. Shaun Gilbert, of Havelock North, was attempting to fly from Te Mata Peak. It was thought the edge of his glider clipped the ground on takeoff.
A friend was able to clamber down the cliff face and help pull Gilbert to safety. Gilbert was discharged from hospital with a suspected broken ankle.
