This was incredible. Aron Ralston told his story of how he was trapped in a remote gorge by an 800 pound boulder and finally to escape cut off his arm. Yikes.
From StarTribune.com: The climber who amputated his arm after being pinned by a boulder had videotaped a final message for his family in case he didn't get out alive.
``I spoke to my parents to tell them how much I loved them and I spoke to my sister and told her how proud I was of what she's doing in her life,'' Aron Ralston said Monday on CBS's ``The Late Show with David Letterman.''
Ralston, 27, of Aspen, was hiking alone, negotiating a canyon in southeastern Utah on April 26, when his right arm became pinned beneath an 800-pound boulder. He freed himself on the fifth day by snapping his bones and using a knife to cut through his arm.
Ralston was by turns joking and serious as he recounted the ordeal.
``Can I show you my trick?'' he asked Letterman, then held a coffee cup in his prosthetic arm and rotated his wrist 360 degrees.
He also mimicked his thought process when he realized he might have to amputate his arm: ``I said to myself, 'I don't want to have to cut my arm off.' 'You're gonna have to cut your arm off, dude!' 'I don't want to have to cut my arm off.'''
``And then I laughed out loud because I was yelling at myself,'' he said.
Recounting his worst moments, Ralston said, ``I went through times when it was really dark for me emotionally, that I feared that I might not make it out.''
He said that's when he propped his video camera on the boulder that was pinning his arm and recorded his message.
``My mom won't watch it, but my dad has seen it,'' he said. Ralston said he'll never make the tape public, ``but it's me there, at that moment.''
He was a very, very experienced outdoorsman, kind of an extreme climber, skiier, biker, etc. He has climbed over 200 mountains, including Mt McKinley in Alaska. It was a bit of a freak accident. He knew from the beginning that he would probably have to cut off his arm, but he couldn't figure out to cut through the bones. He knew he couldn't do it with his pocket knife. Then on the fourth day he realized he could break the bones, then cut through the rest. It was actually an encouraging thought to him, that he knew how to do it.
His attitude, at least on Letterman, was unbelievable. He wasn't sorrowful or depressed. He was glad he was still alive. On his webpage, he has this quote which I can't decide if I like or not:
"Life is empty and meaningless. It is in emptiness that we create possibilities for extraordinary results. "
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