Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Aron Ralston

TO READ OR NOT TO READ II

Okay. I'm not going to lie. I did watch the movie before I read the book. But in all fairness, it wasn't my fault. The movie was so irritatingly persistent in the back of my mind that I just NEEDED something more than a stupid rescue.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Between a Rock and a Hard Place has a "based-on-the-book-by" movie, "127 Hours". I'm sure you've at least heard about it, but if you haven't it's that James Franco movie where he looks high for other reasons than being high.

But, anyway. Onto the book.

It was another one I couldn't put down, yet couldn't (or really didn't want to) finish. Aron Ralston really reached and grabbed and pinched (like his dang NERVE) the heartstrings with his autobiographical debut about his experience of being trapped in Blue John Canyon, Canyonland, Ohio.

Aron is a mountaineer and hiker extraordinaire. A once successful mechanical engineer, he retired from his high-paying job to pursue a life in nature, working in a hiking shop in Aspen and adventuring in his spare time.

But really, the book starts with a normal holiday for Aron. It was supposed to be an easy, relaxing Saturday bike ride and hike for Aron in the Canyonlands, but instead he made the most vital mistake a hiker could make: he didn't tell anyone where he was going.

After meeting and leaving a pair of female fellow hikers, Aron decided to go on by himself, wanting to make the most of an afternoon of quiet. This was his second mistake.

While maneuvering across a slot in the canyon, he stepped on a large boulder that dislodged from under his feet and tumbled down. Aron fell with it, and on instinct, lifted his arms to protect his head, but the rock first hit his left arm and then bounced against the wall, pinning his right arm to the wall.

As you can imagine, this caused a great deal of shoving, banging and hoping from Aron, but the boulder, turning out to weigh over 360kg, had him pinned. That was the start of a harrowing 5 day ordeal for Aron, trying to survive with minimal food and water, at one point even distilling and then drinking his own urine. His only comfort was the ability to leave a last will and testament to his family via a hand-held video camera he always carried while hiking, the recordings often having to be stopped when he became too emotional or delusional that he would scare his family if they were ever to watch it. His attempts at chipping away at the rock with a cheap stocking-filler pocket knife were futile and he hopelessly waited for death with hardly any hope for rescue.

As you can imagine, after those 5 desperate days in Blue John Canyon, Aron Ralston was driven to the unthinkable. In a fit of delusional frustration, he broke both bones in his forearm, and then proceeded to amputate his own arm with a blunt pocket knife. And then survived.

Having fashioned a make-shift tourniquet and then a sling (from the container that held his pee, nonetheless), he managed to rappel (ONE HANDED)down a 45m drop to a pool of water and then proceeded to walk some 12km until he found a group of people who then helped him to a helicopter rescue.

Even in my mind, that felt like a mouthful. In short. It was pretty dang brilliant, even the little past anecdotes the author added every second chapter were quirky and sweet and overall a fantastic addition to a book that could've been a short, grisly survival story.

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED!

READ ME!

"While I’ve learned much, I have no regrets about that choice. Indeed, it has affirmed my belief that our purpose as spiritual beings is to follow our bliss, seek our passions, and live our lives as inspirations to each other. Everything else flows from that." - Aron Ralston, 2003.

xx
Tracy

WHAT I'M READING AT THE MOMENT:
- The Only Way is Up by Carole Matthews

Chick Lit

- What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Chick Lit