Aron Ralston's Accident

In April 2003, while he was hiking Blue John Canyon (in eastern Wayne County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands National Park), a suspended boulder became dislodged, crushing his right forearm and pinning it against the canyon wall. Ralston had not told anybody of his hiking plans and knew no one would be searching for him. Assuming that he would die, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water, approximately 350 ml (12 imp fl oz), while trying to extricate his arm. His efforts were futile as he could not free his arm from the 800-pound rock. After three days of trying to lift and break the boulder, the dehydrated and delirious Ralston prepared to amputate his trapped right arm at a point on the mid-forearm, in order to escape. He experimented with tourniquets and made some exploratory superficial cuts to his forearm in the first few days. On the fourth day he realized that in order to free the arm, he would have to cut through his bones, but that the tools he had available were insufficient to do so. When he ran out of water on the fifth day, he carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the sandstone canyon wall, and videotaped his last goodbyes to his family. He did not expect to survive the night. He found himself still alive at the dawn of the following day (Thursday, May 1, 2003). Soon thereafter, he had an epiphany—he could break his radius and ulna using torque against his trapped arm. He did so, and then performed the amputation, which took about an hour with his two-inch knife. Although he never named the manufacturer of the tool he used other than to say it was not a Leatherman, he did describe it as "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool." After freeing himself, he still had to get back to his car. He climbed out of the slot canyon in which he had been trapped, rappelled down a 65-foot (20 m) sheer wall one-handed, then hiked out of the canyon in the hot midday sun. He was 8 miles (13 km) from his vehicle, and he had no mobile phone. While hiking out, he encountered a family on vacation from the Netherlands, Eric and Monique Meijer, and their son, Andy, who gave him water and then hurried to alert the authorities. Ralston feared he would bleed to death before that happened (by this point, he had lost 40 pounds total, including 25% of his blood volume), but by coincidence, rescuers searching for Ralston (they had been alerted that he was missing by his family and friends and had recently narrowed the search down to Canyonlands) flew by in their helicopter and he was rescued, six hours after amputating his arm.
Later, his arm was removed from under the boulder and retrieved by park authorities. According to Tom Brokaw, it took 13 men, a winch and a hydraulic jack to move the boulder so that Ralston's severed arm could be freed. The arm was cremated and given to Ralston. He returned to the accident scene with Tom Brokaw and the Dateline NBC crew six months later, on his 28th birthday, for two reasons: to film the Dateline NBC special about the accident, and to scatter the ashes of his arm where he says they belong.