Climber amputates his arm, hikes to safety

**nickel** · 05-02-2003, 06:20 AM

*can you believe this? what a crazytough guy this is.

MOAB, Utah (AP) -- A Colorado climber amputated his own arm Thursday, five days after becoming pinned by a boulder, and he was hiking to safety when he was spotted by searchers, authorities said.

Aron Ralston, 27, of Aspen, was in serious condition late Thursday at a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Ralston was climbing Saturday in Blue John Canyon, adjacent to Canyonlands National Park in far southwestern Utah, when a 200-pound boulder fell on him, pinning his right arm, authorities said.

He ran out of water on Tuesday and on Thursday morning, he decided that his survival required drastic action.

Using his pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow and applied a tourniquet and administered first aid.

He then rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled to the canyon floor.

He hiked downstream and was spotted about 3 p.m. by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. The search for Ralston had begun the same morning, after authorities were notified he was four days overdue reporting for work.

Ralston was described by authorities as an avid outdoorsman in exceptional physical condition. They said he was known to have climbed 49 of Colorado's major peaks.
link

**nickel** · 05-02-2003, 06:28 AM

i think i would probably die on the spot, too, but then again, you never really know what you would do in that type of a situation until you are in that type of a situation.

**topane** · 05-02-2003, 06:32 AM

I had to chew my own arm off once. It was either that or wake her up...

**attgig** · 05-02-2003, 07:41 AM

not only did he cut off his arm, but he repelled down the mountain with just one arm...... HOW?!?!

**nickel** · 05-02-2003, 07:42 AM

i smell a made for TV movie....

**ray** · 05-02-2003, 07:52 AM

that's why i don't think i'd ever go do outdoorsy stuff like that alone. but big props to that guy for doing what he had to do. i think under certain circumstances we may all do something amazing like that.

**Tse How** · 05-02-2003, 07:58 AM

Gangsta...

**coleslaw** · 05-02-2003, 10:38 AM

How did he cut through bone with a pocket knife? Holy jeebus, I can't even imagine what that must have taken for him to do that!

**eSDee** · 05-02-2003, 11:03 AM

Jim Rome calls him the toughest mother ****er on the planet. I agree.

**Speedfreak** · 05-02-2003, 11:18 AM

That's pretty amazing.

I guess he couldn't get is feet in position to move a 200 pound boulder, huh?

**coleslaw** · 05-02-2003, 11:53 AM

They are now claiming that it was a ~1000 lb boulder. That sounds more like it. I had a hard time believing that the guy couldn't roll a 200 lb boulder off of his arm.

**Memo** · 05-02-2003, 01:52 PM

I found out yesterday that I don't have a left arm. Def Leppard.

**apmiller** · 05-02-2003, 02:13 PM

The fact that this guy remained awake throughout the whole thing is amazing. Cut off arm, climb dowm mountain...this dude is freakin superman!

**Speedfreak** · 05-02-2003, 02:18 PM

Originally posted by apmiller
The fact that this guy remained awake throughout the whole thing is amazing. Cut off arm, climb dowm mountain...this dude is freakin superman!

Well, superman would have flicked the boulder off with his index finger.

**whitak24** · 05-02-2003, 03:00 PM

that is unbelievably ballsy and tough. to think about hacking off your arm with a pocket knife.....of course, with the amount of time he had been up there, he was probably slightly deranged, so it might not have caused so much pain for him....

this story's probably not appropriate here, but here it goes: in HS, we made this movie (for a class) in which we pretended we were at the michigan militia training camp.

as a result of an accident on the shooting range, we had to amputate my buddy's leg. so i take this pocketknife and pretend to cut off his legs below the knee.

after i finished, my other buddy grabbed the knife, looks admiringly at it, and says "woah! that thing's sharp!"

while we were doing it as a joke, i never imagined that you could actually do it in real life.

**Apex** · 05-02-2003, 04:54 PM

Originally posted by coleslaw
They are now claiming that it was a ~1000 lb boulder. That sounds more like it. I had a hard time believing that the guy couldn't roll a 200 lb boulder off of his arm.

That makes way more sense. For a 200lb boulder to stop a guy crazy enough to saw his own arm off with a pocket knife, he would have to weigh like 30lbs and be 2' tall.

**sbp** · 05-02-2003, 07:47 PM

"What a day I chose not to go climbing with a buddy."

**Kim** · 05-03-2003, 09:08 AM

My husband is in Moab now.

I don't think I could have done it myself. Of course, I don't think I would have lasted 5 days to even get to the point of deciding to cut off my own arm.