Between a Rock and a Hard Place

On Saturday, April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year old outdoorsman, set off for a day's hiking in the Utah canyons. Dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, and with a single bottle of water, he figured he'd hike for a few hours and then head back to his regular life as a fledgling tour guide. After years of climbing every mountain imaginable, this Sunday jaunt didn't even rate--he never even bothered to tell anyone where he was going. Eight miles from his truck, Aron found himself in the middle of a deep and obscure canyon, on top of an 800-pound boulder. Little could he know that he was at the start of a terrifying, life-altering ordeal. In a freak accident, Aron Ralston became trapped when the boulder shifted and snared his right arm against the canyon wall. For five and a half days he faced hypothermia at night, dehydration and hallucinations by day; he took video film of himself, and digital photos; he thought back to the life he'd led, and the people he cared so much about. And then, on May 1st, he finally faced the most terrible decision of his life: his only hope was to amputate his own arm. A story unlike any other, Aron's account of his life leading up to the accident, the accident itself, the five and a half days, the amputation, and the subsequent rescue and recovery, take on an epic quality in this stirring, real-life adventure. Combining the power of a Jon Krakauer adventure with a stunning survival tale in the vein of "Icebound, this is inspiring narrative nonfiction at its most compelling.

"Icebound" meets "Into Thin Air" in this astonishing, day-by-day account of Ralston's terrible accident, self-amputation, and subsequent rescue and recovery. Abridged. 5 CDs