Estudiante

HOMEWORK
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The climber who had no choice but to cut his arm off

Aaron Ralston, a 27 year old mountain sports fanatic from Colorado, found himself trapped in acanyon in the desert when a 500kg rock came crashing down the canyon and smashed his right hand trapping it against the canyon wall. The problem was that in this occasion he failed to tell anyone where hewas going. Suddenly he decided to head out on his own to cycle up a long mountain trail at the Blue John canyon.
After three days of not seeing any sign of life Aaron realized he would die if hedidn´t do something drastic. He would have to amputate his right hand fortunately; he had a small knife with two blades and some straps that he could use to make a tourniquet to stop himself bleedingto death. The next day he found the courage to cut through the skin. Only when he had made a large hole in his arm, he realized that was going to be impossible to use the other tools on his knife tocut through the bones, but after another 24 hours of pain, the strength came on the sixth day of being trapped. With a final burst of energy he broke the bone in his arm and freed himself.
He wasstill a long way from help. He had to strap up his right arm and find a way of lowering himself down a 20m drop in the canyon with a rope and only his left arm, then walk 10km back to his car. Themoment he got out of the canyon into the desert, the rescue helicopter happened to be flying overhead.
Ralston walked into the hospital on his own, even with all his injuries, and the experience ofbeing in the desert for six days with almost nothing to eat and only a few liters of water. He says he´s amputation was an essential example of someone improvising in a dire situation.
Ralstonbelieves that his story has a spiritual dimension to the experience, he also said that the source of the power and courage he felt were the prayers of many people, most of whom he will never know.
Aaron...