Aron Ralston: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[westylass]

This is the true story of a man who was climbing and caught his arm against a huge rock and was trapped. After being stuck for 5 days and having been without water for the last two, he cut off his arm and hiked 7 miles to get help. An amazing story of survival.

 

[cajunmama]

I read that not too long ago. Some places I had to stop reading for a while . It really is an amazing story about the will to live. It is up ther as one of my favs.

 

[Twilite]

I heard the story and was fascinated, and when I saw the book, I added it to the TBR list. Have been a little apprehensive as it seems like the kind of short book that's always rattled off when this kind of thing comes about to make a quick buck without much thought or emotion being put into it (like all the Cricket books out about now).
If that's not the case, it's a definite soon-to-read. Opinions?

 

[cajunmama]

It is really a well thought out book. He spends some time discussing his life before the accident and the ramifications afterwards. I teared up more than once. There is a moral to the story, he blames no one but himself, and he shows that life does go on.

 

[Twilite]

Thanks for the comment. Shall promote it to the top of my TBR list then!

 

[westylass]

It is really a well thought out book. He spends some time discussing his life before the accident and the ramifications afterwards. I teared up more than once. There is a moral to the story, he blames no one but himself, and he shows that life does go on.

I agree re the blame. He takes full responsibility for his actions both in this incident and other close shaves he talks about. I know what you mean Twilite about sometimes people making a fast buck from rattling out a story and that can put me off but I really didn't get that feel from this one. More that he wanted/needed to talk about and share his experience which was a truely amazing one of survival. You might have read it by now inwhich case you will have formed your own opinions anyway!

 

[beer good]

So apparently, people read this book and watch the movie and their first thought is "I gotta do that too!"

In early September, a 64-year-old North Carolina man named Amos Wayne Richards hiked into Utah’s Lower Blue John Canyon. As Richards descended to the canyon floor, he slipped and fell ten feet, breaking his left leg and dislocating his right shoulder. He hadn’t told anyone where he was going, and the only food he had with him was a couple of energy bars. Three days later, a National Park Service patrol found Richards’s car. The next morning, a helicopter crew spotted Richards roughly four miles from the site of his fall. He had spent three days crawling across the desert.

Sound familiar? It should. Blue John is, of course, the canyon where Aron Ralston was trapped in 2003 by a falling rock and forced to amputate his arm. Except for Ralston himself, Utah officials hadn’t performed a single rescue in Blue John or the surrounding canyons between 1998 and 2005. But after Ralston published a book about his ordeal in late 2004, and especially since last January’s release of 127 Hours, starring James Franco as Ralston, the canyon has seen a jump in rescues. Since June 2005, more than two dozen hikers have been reported missing in or near Blue John. Most of them, like Richards, were trying to retrace Ralston’s route.

See, stuff like this is why laziness is an evolutionary advantage.