Aron Ralston, a canyoner, goes for a dayhike in Canyonlands. He pushes his hand into a canyon wall, a boulder shifts, and his arm is trapped. Three days later, he's still there and his water runs out. Two days after that, getting desperate, he gets his pocketknife, ties a tourniquet, and amputates his arm just below the elbow. He then rappels down 60 feet to the canyon floor and begins walking. He's been gone six days. A helicopter finds him and takes him to a hospital where walks into the emergency room and explains what happened.
"Aron Ralston is a warrior," says the Canyonlands park manager.
What did you do today?
I loved this story for all kinds of reasons -- the setting up a rap station and descending 60 feet after the self-lopping, but also 'cause it reminded me of my favorite stephen king story, "Lady Fingers," in "Skeleton Crew." I don't want to spoil it for you, but it involves a lot of heroin.
Posted by: dbrown on May 5, 2003 06:52 PMand i always thought i had a pretty good self-amputation story.
Posted by: elia on May 5, 2003 10:22 PMAt the risk of saturating Saturation with the macabre, my contribution to the self-amputation thread.
Posted by: tmonkey on May 7, 2003 11:00 AMdbrown: i loved Lady Fingers too!
Posted by: phrisky on May 7, 2003 03:44 PM