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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By Aron Ralston

(12)

| Audio CD | 9780743537292

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Book Description

"It's 3:05 on Sunday, April 27, 2003. This marks my twenty-four-hour mark of being stuck in Blue John Canyon. My name is Aron Ralston. My parents are Donna and Larry Ralston, of Englewood, Colorado. Whoever finds this, please make an attempt to get this to them. Be sure of it. I would apprecContinue

Critics

Bookreporter.com - BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE by Aron Ralston

There was a period of my life when I spent a lot of time in the mountains of Colorado, skiing in winters and hiking in summer. Adventure to me was finessing the black diamond ski trails or hiking to a mountaintop in summer following these same trails ... (read full critics)

bookreporter published on Wed, 1 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

I'm not an "adventurous type", still, I find the spirit of people like Ralston or McCandless very much alike mine. Loved it. It's inspiring, and it made me meditate about what is selfish and what is not.

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SamanthaJackson said on Sep 10, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

How could someone be so passionate towards and would never stop doing, or even thinking about, outdoor actions? Ralston saturated his live with mountaineering, skiing, rafting, canyoneering, everything that you can or can't think of for the outdoors. The dedication is so impressive.
Maybe these a ... (continue)

How could someone be so passionate towards and would never stop doing, or even thinking about, outdoor actions? Ralston saturated his live with mountaineering, skiing, rafting, canyoneering, everything that you can or can't think of for the outdoors. The dedication is so impressive.
Maybe these are the drives behind: "...... open to what that day was giving me and accept it", and "...... open to whatever was there for me to discover led to awareness and delight, even when conditions were rough". Challenges and situations are overcome one by one, yet another challenge comes up. Ralston's freeing himself and getting himself out of the canyon, improvising what equipment he had with him and what skills he had about the outdoors, demonstrates that he had been born for adventures.
What Erik Meijer, one hiker from Holland that Ralston met when hiking out of the Canyon who had helped him, said about Ralston, are probably the attributes of Ralston that had got him out of the entrapment and found rescue: "He exactly knew what he was doing, what he wanted and where his limits were even after going through all this", and it seems that these are much related to his passion for adventure.

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Wing Wong said on May 1, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Ralston realised that by moving his body weight around against the boulder he could snap the ulna and radius one after the other. Then it was only a matter of stabbing through the skin and carefully cutting away the tendons and arteries. He applied a tourniquet to stall the blood loss. “Prodding and ... (continue)

Ralston realised that by moving his body weight around against the boulder he could snap the ulna and radius one after the other. Then it was only a matter of stabbing through the skin and carefully cutting away the tendons and arteries. He applied a tourniquet to stall the blood loss. “Prodding and pinching, I can distinguish between the hard tendon and ligaments, and the soft, rubbery feel of the more pliable arteries,” he writes. “I should avoid cutting the arteries until the end if I can help it at all. Why did I have to suffer all this extra time? God, I must be the dumbest guy to ever have his hand trapped by a boulder. It took me six days to figure out how I could cut off my arm.”

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Visible Procrastinations said on Apr 2, 2007 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback