Regarding the climber in Utah trapped by a fallen rock… there was just a bit about it on the news, with his story of how he actually managed to sever his own arm given a blunt, unserrated knife.
<shudder>
<tries to think of fluffy bunny rabbits and nice things>
<faints>
Phil
phil, i find the thread title to be offensive
this article tells the story and is credited at the bottom
this guy is a climber and will never climb the kinda grades he used to be able to climb because he wont have a hand where it used to be and he did that to stay alive
i know nobody would like to mock a unicyclist after losing a foot and suddenly not being able to do the gaps and grinds they used to be able to do
a lil’ respect?
here’s a bit of the article
Well because this guy doesn’t need to play ball to show how much of a man he really is. I am of course speaking of Aron Ralston, my choice for MVP and also honorary recipient of “Biggest Badass EVER award,” a title that, though not handed out yearly, certainly carries the weight of a Grammy, Oscar, Noble Prize and Wendy’s Employee of the Month combined.
OK, so who is Aron Ralston, and why does he deserve such an honor?
Well, Mr. Ralston is a 27-year-old hiker from Colorado who found himself in a pretty tight spot last week, literally. While hiking somewhere in Utah, he slipped and fell and became pinned to the ground by a massive boulder. The boulder, which landed directly on his arm, didn’t exactly tickle and neither did what he was about to do.
Aron’s ordeal began last Saturday, which was the first day he was – literally – caught between a rock and hard place. By Tuesday, he was out of water and by Thursday, the situation was looking pretty hopeless. This is when Ralston made the choice that defines just how much of a man one can be.
He realized that the only way to free himself and save his slowly escaping life would be to somehow get his arm out from underneath the rock. So, he did what most people would never, ever do in their wildest nightmare – he reached into his backpack, pulled out his trusty Swiss Army knife and amputated his arm from below the elbow.
As if that wasn’t enough, this guy’s next trick was to rappel down the side of a canyon and walked himself out of the forest. Rescuers spotted him as he was strolling calmly along a trail, a bloody stump wrapped in a tourniquet where his arm was before. He didn’t bleed to death, he didn’t go directly into shock, he just figured out what he had to do to survive his ordeal and then he did it.
Now, I know that this story sounds like something out of a bad Stallone flick, but believe me kids, this guy is as real as the arm stuck under a rock some coyote has been trying to get to for a few days now. I talk a lot about guys making clutch plays and being tough and strong. But honestly, I don’t care what your name is, you’ve got nothing on Aron Ralston.
This guy, despite and because of having one arm, could be the toughest man in the history of Western civilization. He could have probably kicked John Wayne’s ass any day of the week and twice on Sunday. He also now owns the greatest drinking story ever, not to mention the most hideous scar to prove just how much of a badass he really is.
Personally, I couldn’t even imagine having to make that type of choice. I don’t even like shaving more than once a week, let alone lopping off my own arm with a pocketknife. That sort of situation is so completely insane it would take the kind of rational decision-making that about 99.9% of the world just doesn’t have.
I probably would have just curled up in the fetal position the best I could, laid there and died like a dog. But not this man, not the baddest man alive. What can you say about this guy?
I think the phrase “tough as nails” might need to be updated somewhat, because it certainly doesn’t fit this situation.
“Tough as Ralston” – now that has more of a ring to it.
Brian Gjurgevich is a sports writer for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at baro.sports@studentmedia.orst.edu.
The Daily Barometer is my school newspaper. 
The doctors have said that even if Aron had been able to free himself without cutting off his arm, his arm would still have been amputated at the hospital. The damage to his lower arm was too great due to the boulder falling on it.
In addition to being an avid climber he is also a mountain biker. Perhaps we could get him interested in trying MUni now. You can certainly muni with just one good arm. I can imagine him taking up mountain unicycling and doing very well at it.
But continuing with mountain biking is not out of the question either. In “North Shore Extreme Volume IV: Big Rocks Hard Knocks” there is a segment featuring a one armed mountain biker named Will Craig riding the North Shore trails. He has a very fancy prosthetic that allows him to steer and control his bike. I’ll attach some screenshots from the video. It is clear that Aron could continue mountain biking.
I also don’t see why he can’t continue climbing. Technical rock climbing might not be possible, but mountaineering and climbing high peaks is still very possible.
All of the news reports have noted his positive attitude and his desire to continue his outdoor activities and adventures. Yah it’s a bummer that he lost his arm below the elbow and it’s not pleasant to think about what he had to do to do it. But his outdoorsy style lifestyle will continue.
Umm… errr… yes, it is rather. Sorry…
Phil
I wonder how many people here would have done that??
I have, however, heard rumours of people being trapped in rock falls with no penknife, and having to chew through their own arm! I’m not sure how true these rumours are, but I dont see why it wouldn’t happen…
O yeah, I almost forgot. When we were riding one of the trails on the BMW, we saw a guy with one arm mountain biking. He stopped and admired us, and we just stood there speechless! He had no prosthetic arm, he was just riding one handed. He’d had all the gears shifted to one side so that he could operate it properly. We asked how easy it was (this was a rocky, steepish downhill section) and he said he’d fallen off a few minutes ago. He seemed ok though, and went riding down the hill at a pretty good speed.
About chewing through your arm - I think you might be thinking of wolves. It’s fairly typical behavior of wolves when caught in a bear trap or something like it. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a human chewing through their own arm - except in bad jokes.
What this man had to go through was incredible and its amazing what he did. As to whether we could do it, it’s hard to imagine. You would think one would do what one has to to survive, but this is incredible. Even if he didn’t have the knife, I think he would have managed something. I read that he had to break the bone before cutting, so it was much more than just cutting with the pocket knife. When you get down to it, risks like these are part of the adventure - even if they are pretty fringe.
The one thing nobody’s mentioned is that this happened in Moab, right around the corner from where we were festing a few short weeks ago. It’s easy to imagine a rock shift like that happening out there just about anywhere.
Here are a couple of follow-up articles on Aron Ralston.
Any way you look at his predicament and escape, it’s not funny.
It’s hard to tell from those screen shots, but that one armed mountain biker’s new elbow is actually a Fox Float air shock, the same used on mountain bikes! That’s awesome
Yup, it’s a customized Fox Shox.
For more about the arm check out his web site:
prostheticarm.com
It’s amazing how well he is able to control his bike with that prosthetic arm. On a mountain bike you need to be able to move your weight forward and back to maintain bike control and maintain traction. The artificial arm must make it more difficult to do those weight shifts, but he’s doing it, and doing it better than I can with two arms.
Not to mention that his arm is ‘clipped in’ to the handlebar!
