Missileer
Active member
Pain is that little voice in your head that tells you to get up off that cherry red wood burning stove.
Here's a real test of endurance.
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - As he sawed through the final strands of his own tissue and skin with a dull blade, Aron Ralston was overcome with emotion, awash in a wave of euphoria unlike anything he'd felt before.
Malnutrition and dehydration, delirium, searing pain - none of it registered anymore. Held captive by a half-ton boulder at the bottom of a narrow canyon for five days, Ralston freed himself by severing his own arm, gaining an unexpected second chance at life.
Heading out on a relatively benign - at least to an experienced mountaineer such as Ralston - hike through a slot canyon in the Utah desert in April 2003, Ralston became trapped when a chockstone dislodged and trapped his right arm. With little food, less water and virtually no chance of being rescued, Ralston used drastic means to extend his life, from drinking his own urine to rigging ropes and webbing to support his weight.
Unable to budge the boulder with a makeshift pulley system or break it with a multi-tool, Ralston escaped by torquing his arm against the rock to break his bones, then ripping through his decaying flesh with a small, dull knife.
His bloody stump wrapped in a makeshift sling, Ralston rappelled down a 60-foot drop, then hiked six miles through the desert before an improbable sequence of events, including stumbling across a family of hikers and getting to a helicopter just in time, helped save his life.
Here's a real test of endurance.
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - As he sawed through the final strands of his own tissue and skin with a dull blade, Aron Ralston was overcome with emotion, awash in a wave of euphoria unlike anything he'd felt before.
Malnutrition and dehydration, delirium, searing pain - none of it registered anymore. Held captive by a half-ton boulder at the bottom of a narrow canyon for five days, Ralston freed himself by severing his own arm, gaining an unexpected second chance at life.
Heading out on a relatively benign - at least to an experienced mountaineer such as Ralston - hike through a slot canyon in the Utah desert in April 2003, Ralston became trapped when a chockstone dislodged and trapped his right arm. With little food, less water and virtually no chance of being rescued, Ralston used drastic means to extend his life, from drinking his own urine to rigging ropes and webbing to support his weight.
Unable to budge the boulder with a makeshift pulley system or break it with a multi-tool, Ralston escaped by torquing his arm against the rock to break his bones, then ripping through his decaying flesh with a small, dull knife.
His bloody stump wrapped in a makeshift sling, Ralston rappelled down a 60-foot drop, then hiked six miles through the desert before an improbable sequence of events, including stumbling across a family of hikers and getting to a helicopter just in time, helped save his life.