Cmon, Chronos, haven’t you ever read “Survivor Type” by Stephen King? Why, he could have had tons of dope on him and used it the whollllle time, perhaps even saving a little extra for the surgery. 
Most be something in the air up there.Pinned hiker cuts off arm
I am glad the arm made it, seemingly it’s now got a sit-com lined up for the Fall season and is tipped to replace Letterman 1 night a week.
Perhaps the guy went out to commit suicide and failed, then his survival instincts kicked in. Or maybe was having sex with the boulder then it got a little rough for him.
smam WTF is your problem?
“For reasons he wouldn’t explain, Ralston withheld some details of his story. A publicist told reporters there would be no follow-up interviews soon and no interviews whatsoever with the doctors who treated him.”
This means that he is seeking to sell his story to a movie co., so he is withholding details that he will be able to sell only to them - something that is not in the public domain, so to speak.
If I remember correctly, those PA miners did the same thing after they were brought up… and then there was their movie…
And according to another article I’d read on this subject, linked in a previous GQ thread on this incident, he’d also quit a previous job (as an engineer or programmer I think it was), moved to a different state, and took up a job at a sporting goods store so that he could climb more. He’d set a goal of climbing a specific number of peaks within a certain time limit and those changes in his life allowed him to pursue that. If I recall correctly, he hadn’t yet achieved it, and so I really don’t see this guy as a self-mutilator.
I’m quite willing to believe klas’ speculation on why he isn’t saying more. Either a book or a film is probably on the way (though I’d personally prefer a book, something along the lines of Into Thin Air).
[Young Ones]
NEIL: Hey, wouldn’t it be terrible if I ended up having to cut off my arm. Like that guy did in that movie, um, ‘I Ended Up Having To Cut Off My Arm.’
[/Young Ones]
What? If a man went out to the wilderness to commit suicide. Chose to end it all by causing a big boulder to roll on his head but changed his mind at the last minute and moved out the way causing only your arm to be trapped. Then decided that he wanted to live, wouldn’t you want to cover up the part that says you brought it all on yourself ? I am just saying what might have happened out there and I think that is a valid theory I came up with.
People do have sex with inanimate objects, if the guys who rolled the rock over found a used condom under it , I would want to keep that quiet. The sitcom thing has no basis in reality though.
It’s an amazing story, but nothing surprizes me about it. He had the unfortunate experience of being caught up in (or perhaps accelerating) a bit of geologic history. He simply could have grabbed the seemingly solid rock for a hold but it turned out to be loose and it teetered and fell. That sort of thing happens all the time. He’s incredibly lucky it was only his forearm that got pinned.
As for withholding the gory details, maybe he wants to save it for the book. Maybe he doesn’t feel like discussing over and over again what it’s like when you have to eliminate your bodily waste over the course of five days and your hand is pinned under a rock.
I would have to see a picture of the boulder & where it was before I could determine if it would be possible to get out from under it. If it were at the bottom of a slope it could be tricky.
On the other hand (pardon the pun) he shouldn’t have been hiking alone.
I don’t think there is anything odd about the story, or his reluctance to speak, there are several different reasons not to speak, some of which have already been said or alluded to.
However, I have to oppose the view that assumes pushing an 800 pound rock would be easy. if the rock is 6 feet high, 2 feet wide and teetering on a fulcrum smack dab in the center of its gravity, then sure, why not but if its shape, angle, pivot point is anything other than that it would be damn impossible to move. Especially trapped by it without a decent hydrolic jack, or something.
T’was relieved to hear he hadn’t been a paperhanger.
I can easily accept the notion 800 lbs. is too much to overcome if he had no leverage. He could have been in a loose medium, on a narrow ledge or just ackwardly alligned. Looking at his cheerful demeanor and in light of the athletic requirements for doing what he obviously enjoyed, I don’t see his actions as anything but measured and appropriate.
It will be interesting to see what his next quest will be once he’s recuperated. The guy’s an amazing adventurer.
For all those that feel that there is something odd about this story, could you please come right out and say what you think is odd about it?
Are you implying that he did this for celebrity? or…? Because I am just not following what is “odd” about the given scenario. It’s being made out that he could have easliy moved the rock. I don’t see that either.
Just because he doesn’t want to talk about it it (even if it isn’t in regards to a future movie) doesn’t mean a thing. Maybe *he just doesn’t want to talk about it *.
Maybe he doesn’t, but how come the doctors who treated him aren’t allowed to talk or won’t talk?
I find the questioning of the story preposterous.
Everone mentions the 800-pound rock as though someone actually went out and weighed it. What we do know is two people were unable to move it, which meant it was pretty damn heavy. If two people couldn’t move it when they could choose any leverage they needed, why is is strange that one person couldn’t move it from a position that doesn’t give any leverage?
If the guy wanted to cut off his own arm, why wait all that time with a rock atop it before cutting it off?
Of course, one can second-guess him all day long. But I can’t see the slightest basis for doubting his account.
I think he’d four days to consider all of his options before he chose to cut his arm off. If this was his best option…
He gave his followup interview this morning. I have not read the whole post so sorry if this was said.
“My knife was very dull. I first got through the skin, then snapped my radius, the cut some more and snapped my ulna. I proceeded to cut the rest away and applied the tournequet.”
That is paraphrased of course. But imagin slicing through your own skin with a dull knife, then snapping your own arm TWICE! to get through the bones.
I must say he should have had little to no feeling for him not to pass out. Though we don’t know he didn’t passout, he very well may have.
A patient’s medical history is private. And a respectful doctor should honor a patient’s wishes if the patient if the patient asks the doctor not to speak to the press about him.
Not everyone is a camera-hungry media whore. He may have granted the one interview simply to get the vultures to stop circling. And if his goal is to instead profit off of his tale with a book and/or TV movie-of-the-week, that is entirely his own perogative. There is no rule that he has to tell his story for free.
A sailor skill too. 
I do hope he’s more careful in the future. I’d hate to see him get caught between another rock and a hard place.