The first face Stuart Diver saw after more than two days trapped in the rubble of the Thredbo landslide was that of rescuer Warwick Kidd.
"I did apologise to him for that," Superintendent Kidd tells AAP on the eve of the 20th anniversary of what remains one of Australia's worst tragedies.
As a station officer with NSW Fire and Rescue, the 57-year-old was one of the first responders on the scene on July 31, 1997, arriving four hours after the late-night landslide at the popular NSW ski resort.
The site was covered in mud, water and large trees and rescuers had no idea how many people were trapped beneath in the two collapsed ski lodges.
The biggest fear at that point was triggering a secondary collapse.
"My first look across the site was 'goodness me, where am I going to start," Superintendent Kidd said.
"It's like climbing over a pile of pick-up sticks - everything you touch moves."
Two decades later, and having since attended disasters around the world, he still remembers the moment rescuers were told there was a survivor.
He managed to drill a hole big enough to lower a torch down to Mr Diver, enabling him to help rescuers find a way to get him out.
"I told him that we would get him out," Superintendent Kidd recalls.
"We sort of made a promise to him that he'd be out before the sun set and we did, we got him out before the sun set."
Superintendent Kidd said rescuers had been hopeful they'd find more survivors within the crucial 100-hour period, but Mr Diver was the only one.
Memorial services are being held in the alpine village this weekend to mark 20 years since the landslide that killed 18 people, including Mr Diver's wife.
Around 300 people including Mr Diver skied and snowboarded down the Supertrail with red flares on Saturday night before a fireworks display in memory of those who died.
Thredbo resort said it was a fitting commemoration for a group of people who loved the mountains and Thredbo.
Friends and family of the victims will gather at Thredbo Chapel on Sunday for an ecumenical service followed by a wreath laying, ahead of a midnight vigil at the site of the landslide.
