Cut off your hand?

J

Jockohomo

Joined
Jan 16, 2004
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You may have heard about a climber by the name of Aron Ralston who had a slight mishap. It seems that he managed to trap his hand between the proverbial rock and a hard place. After 5 days he decided (yes, 5 days!) to cut it off. His knife, a Leatherman knockoff that wouldn't cut butter (a lesson there perhaps?). Not to spoil the ending, it's obvious that a better knife would have made the task much easier.
But, which knife?
As a hot weather climber, travelling ultra-light, I think we have to rule out the obvious choices such as machetes, kukris and bowies. It also begs the question, chop, slice or saw? His arm bone was a major problem!
I thought the Cold Steel Vaquero Grande might be a good choice but on reflection, most climbers would find that too big a folder for EDC.
I would be very interested to hear your informed views on this most macabre of topics.
 
Leatherman Wave. A REAL one. The saw would come in 'handy'. It wouldn't matter much though as I most likely would have died there. He should have had someone with him and his cell phone. Then it still would have been bad but he could have let the doctors cut off his crushed hand. Ouch.

Oily
 
They had a 1 hour special about this guy's ordeal the other night on NBC. Pretty amazing. He didn't cut off his hand until it had already started to decompose. Plus, he didn't cut through the bone: he TWISTED his arm up/down until he snapped one and then the other bone in his arm. He then cut through the flesh, muscle, arteries, a nerve and then the tendons. He said it took about an hour from start to finish. Unbelievable... :eek:
 
Pretty tough, that's not even mentioning that he had hiked for several hours afterwards as well, and negotiated terrains that would be difficult for a climber with both arms. Being an ultra-fit and experienced climber and a paramedic himself (I think that was the case) probably helped though.

Yeah a sharp multi-tool with a saw would have helped. Serrations anyone?
 
I feel sorry for the next guy that climbed that route. Imagine reaching up for a hold and grabbing a bloody hand and stump :eek: Did they ever mention in the one hour special if the hand was recovered?
 
Yes. It took, I think, about 15 or so men, working together, to dislodge the boulder that had trapped his hand (he was trapped in a long, very narrow ravine/cleft in the rocks, like a very deep trench. The boulder had pinned his hand against the wall of the trench). The recovered hand was cremated, and he scattered the ashes somewhere in the area.
 
The guy is crazy/tough enough to cut off his own hand. I thought he would have had it stuffed and hung over the fireplace. :)
 
I assumed some coyote found a snack :)
He's written a book about his ordeal. I've started hiking, I always take a cell phone, but man... Hopefully I'd have a large blade as I usually do, and manage to get away with shaving my thumb off or something :(
 
I grew up in a farm community with a boy whose father did the same thing after getting his hand caught in a bailer way out in the boonie.

Took it off with a 3 blade stockman.

tough don't begin to describe it.
 
Incidentally, He's on the cover of the new Outside magazine, holding a Leatherman wave (with the one hand opening blade). It seems that he learned more than one thing from that experience.

cover_sept2004_toc.jpg
 
did the articles say how dangerous and foolish it was for him to do that hike solo? I think quite a few had opined that that bit of risk was unwarranted...

I admire Aaron's courage, calmness and sheer determination and expertise tho'....
 
I sat with my wife and nine year old son and watched the entire 2-hour story. It was unbelievable what he went through out there.

He lost 45 pounds while out there, ran out of food and water eventually. All that was left to drink was (well, you know, #1). He had used the knife blades to try to chip at the rock, which dulled the already crappy blades even more.

He couldn't sit down, so he made a sling out of rope to give his legs a rest.

This guy was quite experienced, doing solo mountain climbs and such. But on this particular trip, he didn't tell anyone where he was going. It was only after he didn't show up for work days later that people started to worry.

He had no jacket or cold weather gear, but he did have a head lamp.

He said when he started to cut his arm off and poked thru the skin, it let out air like a deflated tire. When he finally got free, he continued down the canyon, and had to rapel down a 60' cliff with one arm. He found a pool of water at the bottom with a dead raven in it, and drank from it. yuk.

He made it most of the way back to the trailhead, and finally met up with some hikers, who helped him till the chopper came to rescue him.


Awesome story, but the thing that really bugs me is this: This guy has probably got all the best outdoor gear - shoes, packs, ropes, etc., but he brings a cheap offshore leatherman knock off with him. Better than nothing I suppose, but the wrong thing to skimp on, IMHO.


BTW, next time the wife or SO says you're paying too much for a knife, you can tell her this story...
 
What's the title of the book, Moron Survival? Hiking alone can be fatal if your break your ankle or something banal like that, especially when you don't carry a cell phone, tell anyone your itinerary, and carry crap survival equipment.

I don't think he was particularly tough or courageous, he did what any limb trapped animal tries if it has the chance. :rolleyes:
 
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