ARTelevision

Colorado Climber Amputates His Own Arm After Becoming Pinned by a Boulder

The Associated Press

MOAB, Utah May 1 —
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, Colo.

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.
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I know this is a bit sensationalistic, but damn.
I would hope I could do the same thing in that situation.
Could I?
Hard to tell.
Anyone think they definitely could or could not handle this if it came down to it?

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Somenosuke

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snowy

I just kept thinking about the pain, but then I realized that if a 200-lb boulder fell on my arm, I probably wouldn't be feeling much of anything in that arm anyways. I think the human body and the human mind are extraordinary things, and I'd like to think if I was caught in a similar situation, I would be able to do the same. Owwwww.

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Prophecy

I know that as things stand right now, there's no way I could cut off my own arm. I just can't see myself doing it. But if it came down to it were it was lossing my arm or lossing my life.... I guess the arm would have to go...but this story is bit "sensationalistic" to use Art's word.

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La Fede È Il Mio Schermo,
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Cynthetiq

damn... prima facie I don't think that I could do it.. but after several days sitting in one spot.. I'm sure that I'd be a wiser individual.

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GreenCloud

it sucks he had to take such drastic measures, but i definitely commend him for having the guts to do it.

as far as whether or not i could do such a thing in a similar situation... well, i honestly don't know. i've never really been in such an extreme situation, and i suppose i can't really know how i would react until i was actually faced with the decision in real life. however, if i had reached the point where i knew i had pretty much no chance of rescue, and my options were to either cut off my arm, or to stay and wait for a slow death, i guess i could do it, it would be really hard, but i think i'd rather that than just waiting to die. i've got a decent-to-high tolerance for pain, from what i can tell, and i suppose my arm would be somewhat numb by then anyway... i think the biggest issues then would be hoping my knife was sharp enough and that i had enough strength left at that point so i could get the job done quickly and start first aid/etc fast enough so as not to lose too much blood in the process.... of course, i don't think i'd be out there to begin with, although i'm sure if i was, it would be just my luck to have something really shitty happen

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bender

As much as I would like to say that I would cut it off in a second I can't.
I would have to be in that guys shoes to see how I would really react.
But a pocket knife ...damn.

sixate

Holy fucking shit!! That's almost hard to believe. I think I'd be a dead mother fucker. I can't even imagine how bad that had to hurt. One hell of a story to tell the grandkids someday. Christ that's unfuckingreal.

rsl12

goddamn. i hope that pocketknife had the saw in it. his right arm too--that means he was cutting with his left.

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Minx

Is this the toughest guy in the whole FREAKING world or what??????
To live or die....it's amazing what you will do to keep going.
Hats off to this man.

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krwlz

He ought to win an honerary iron man trophy....godammit all to hell, I don't think I could do that!

Liquor Dealer

I really do not understand how, after spending all that time trapped, then after amputating his own arm, was able to rappell down anything. I couldn't do that with both arms - much less with one!

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JumpinJesus

I respect what he did so much I'd shake his hand if he had one.


sorry.

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Arock

I read this story elsewhere. The story I read said the boulder was 800lbs. I'm not sure if that makes a difference in the end but it seems like at 200lbs you might be able to muster up the strength to move it before you had to cut your arm off. If you could get the juices going to psych yourself up to amputate a limb, maybe you could move a 200lb rock?
Also, he cut it off at the elbow (I read) so he would "only" have to cut through ligaments and muscle- no bone.
I think I could do it if I new that was my only option. I don't know if I would have come to that conclusion in the 5 days I was pinned there. One thing I know I couldn't do would be repelling down with one arm. I can't tie ropes; I wouldn't be able to do it with one hand. If my survival was based on my knowledge of repelling down the mountain- I'd be a dead man. I could cut my arm off, but I think I'd bleed to death trying to make my way down.

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annie1

Gosh, i heard about that today, absolutely amazing! I dont know what i would have done being in that situation.

nefarious

I think people underestimate them selves!!

you'd do ANYTHING once you get desperate!

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yournamehere

And a respectful golf clap to <b>Art</b> for the title, and its understated humor.

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phoenix1002

That's intense... I don't know if I could do the same thing in that kind of situation. I'd like to think I could, but... I suspect I'd pass out due to pain or blood loss or something before I could finish.

I'm just curious about one thing... where was this guy's buddy? I've always been told (and practiced) that you always climb with someone else, in case something bad happens. I commend this guy's ability to survive on his own, but why put yourself in that kind of a situation? If he had been climbing with someone else, he might have been able to get the rock off the arm, and save it. Then again, having been in that kind of situation, I guess this guy knows just how far he'd go to survive.

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I'd rather be climbing...

I approach college much like a recovering alcoholic--one day at a time...

Shadowman

That guy has balls. That is one of the bravest things I've known someone to do. I'd never do that, or even think of it, I think I'd just die!

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SecretMethod70

I've heard quite a few stories like this actually - truly amazing.

As for me...I'd be dead. There's no way I could amputate my arm. Of course, who knows how one would react when they're truly in the situation. Adrenaline does a lot.

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Phaenx

Climb with a buddy I guess.

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Emotion

i dont know if i could ever saw off my own arm, even if it was to save my life...

eyeronic

My friend sent that to me this morning with the topic: the toughest guy I know...

I think you might be able to do this if you knew you'd die otherwise AND you were already at the point of hallucinating.

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Sun Tzu

Hard core! Endorphins or not that’s called going into the zone. It makes me wonder if husband and wife were trapped in a cave with plenty of water, but no food what the inevitable outcome would be. At the moment I can easily say I would die before I would hurt someone I love for food by taking my own life, but would they?

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ARTelevision

Climber Who Cut Off Arm to Have Surgery

Sun May 4,11:37 AM ET
Associated Press

GREEN RIVER, Utah - Aron Ralston, a climber who cut off his arm to free himself from a huge boulder, is improving and will have surgery Monday to close his wound.

Surgeons may have to shorten the bone so Ralston will be able to wear a prosthetic arm, hospital officials said. He was hospitalized in fair condition after his six-day ordeal.


Ralston, an avid outdoorsman and expert climber from Aspen, Colo., was on a day hike April 26 when a boulder shifted onto his arm. Out of water and unable to move the boulder after days of trying, Ralston used a pocketknife to cut off his arm.


His family issued a statement thanking the people who rescued Ralston after he was able to get free on Thursday.


Sgt. Mitch Vetere, who found Ralston after the climber freed himself, had never seen anything it.


A man, bloody from head to toe, in the bottom of a canyon, streaks of red staining his bare legs. Part of his arm was gone.


Vetere wasn't sure what had happened. "I cut it off with my pocketknife," Ralston told him, matter of factly.


Then he told his story.


Saturday, April 26, started as a routine day of climbing for Ralston, an avid outdoorsman and expert climber. He planned to spend the day riding his mountain bike and climbing the red rocks and sandstone just outside the Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah — 350,000 acres of mostly wilderness with areas of buttes, mesas and intricate canyons.


He had climbed alone before plenty of times. He had scaled 49 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks in the winter and this outing was a warm-up for an ascent of Alaska's Mount McKinley.


Ralston, 27, of Aspen, Colo., parked his pickup truck in a parking lot, took off on his mountain bike for 15 miles, then tied it to a juniper tree.


He planned to canyoneer down remote Blue John Canyon and end up where he parked his truck, then go back for the bike. Canyoneering is where a climber uses rock-climbing gear to negotiate narrow canyons and moves in a horizontal direction rather than vertical.


Ralston was maneuvering around a narrow slot canyon just 3 feet wide when he put his right hand on the side of a boulder, and it shifted, pinning his hand.


He was trapped.


Ralston tried ropes, anchors, anything to move the boulder, but it wouldn't budge.


Temperatures dipped into the 30s at night, and still Ralston worked to free himself.


By Tuesday, his water ran out.

No climbers had come by.

When Ralston didn't show up for his job at the Ute Mountaineer store in Aspen, friends called authorities.

Vetere, a patrol sergeant with the Emery County Sheriff's Office in Green River, got the call Thursday morning. A climber was several days overdue. His truck had been found, but no one had seen Ralston.

Terry Mercer, a helicopter pilot with the Utah Highway Patrol in Salt Lake City, met Vetere and another deputy about 1 p.m. Thursday at Horseshoe Canyon, where Ralston's truck was parked.

After reading notes and looking at Ralston's equipment in his truck, Mercer and Vetere knew Ralston was an experienced climber. They figured he might have headed north up the trail, since it gets deeper and sharper the farther north it extends.

Hikers and climbers who parked in the same lot as Ralston said they had gone south and didn't see Ralston.

Mercer flew for about two hours. Nothing.

As he was about to land, he, Vetere and the other deputy looked down into the canyon and saw two people waving. They were tourists from Holland who had encountered Ralston as he tried to find help.

Ralston was covered in blood. Vetere was shocked at the sight — dry and fresh blood coating his body. His red legs matched the red rocks, Vetere thought.

Mercer radioed back to the command center in the parking lot: "He looks OK. He's walking. He looks pretty strong."

After Ralston was helped into the helicopter, Mercer peeked back at him. Ralston's right arm was in a makeshift sling made from a camelback used to carry water.

"I was wondering what in the world happened," Mercer said.

Ralston leaned his head back in the helicopter and sipped on some water. Vetere kept him talking, so he wouldn't lose consciousness.

After he ran out of water and no one had come for him, Ralston said he knew he would have to cut off his arm to save himself. He used his pocketknife he had stuffed into his shorts pocket. His rescuers didn't ask to see it.

He then rappelled down some 60-75 feet to the canyon floor and walked 4 to 5 miles before he saw the tourists from Holland.

Vetere and Mercer almost didn't believe it.

Ralston was within a mile of his pickup truck. He almost didn't even need to be rescued.

Twelve minutes later, the helicopter arrived at Allen Memorial Hospital in Moab, Utah. Ralston walked into the emergency room without help, then pointed out on a map where he had been stuck.

Mercer and two other deputies went back into the canyon, hoping they could retrieve Ralston's hand and that it could be reattached.

Ralston had called the boulder a 200-pound rock, but Mercer could easily see it was at least 800 pounds.

"We could see his rope that he had left hanging that he had rappelled down on," Mercer said.

"It was very sobering because we saw the ropes he had rigged up to try and get a pulley action. To think he had sat there for five days working at getting his hand loose and finally deciding he had to do something to save himself," he said.

The rock — covered in Ralston's blood — wouldn't move. Marks on the canyon wall indicated the rock had fallen 2 or 3 feet.

Ralston was transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., where he was in fair condition on Saturday.

Friends say Ralston is known for living on the edge.

"To be honest, sometimes we get pretty scared with some of the things he's doing," said Brion After, manager of the store where Ralston works.

His rescuers are still amazed at Ralston's will to live. They say he likely wouldn't have been found by a helicopter because of his position on the canyon wall.

"I've never seen anybody that had this much desire and this much tenacity to stay with it and stay alive," Mercer said.

Mercer and Vetere are used to seeing disoriented climbers who lose their way or just give up while waiting for help.

Aron Ralston was different, they say.

He saved himself.

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Double D

This story is just so amazing. It brought to me a visual of an animal caught in a trap, chewing it's own leg off in order to escape.