Why You Should Cut Off Your Arm

The Story Of One Incredible Man Who Did

Once upon a time on the 26th of April 2003, a 27-year-old man named Aron Ralston went to explore canyons in Utah.

He was the adventurous sort of man. Full of ambition, life and a sense of never-ending dedication. There’s something beautiful in the spirit of those who seek their ultimate sense of joy and value in life even when others would be less keen to pursue it alone. Aron was one of those people.

In his early life, he spent his free time outdoors in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. A well-rounded star who achieved credits in engineering, French and piano. He briefly studied abroad, worked as a rafting instructor during the summer and gave a good pounce at various sports. He was an experienced mountaineer, and had set out to climb all of Colorado’s “Fourteeners” (peaks higher than 14,000 feet or 4270 metres). His weekends and holidays were cultivated by this goal and so be it if was only a quiet personal ambition.

By 27, like many good men in their 20s, he experimented with various jobs and places to live. This underscored the common dilemma of solidifying what one wanted out of life. It was what was expected but of course, anyone at this stage occasionally needed to indulge in a break.

So, on this afternoon, Bluejohn Canyon held up astounding sights. Scarlet landscapes stretched for miles. It was all there for Aron to see it.

There was a rhythm to his movements. Down the crooks between the rocks, in the shade, out in the warm sunshine, rough surfaces to scale down and ridges to climb up. All of it was familiar to his hands. The steps were like a dance he had choreographed over the years for an encore performance.

Our story gets interesting when Aron descended a particular slot canyon. There was a boulder suspended in the crack. Pinned by the walls, it seemed like an obvious place to support his body weight. With his assured experience, Aron tested it and then he placed his hand on the boulder for support.

Unfortunately, it very much was the wrong step. In an instant, the boulder dislodged, he came flaying down with it and a quick scuffle ended within seconds.

His left hand was crushed and his right arm caught in the chaotic scramble. Aron found stillness as a moment passed. He was now on the canyon floor with his right arm pinned against the wall by an 800 lbs / 360 kg rock.

He slung off his bag and examined his supplies like a puzzle. There had to be a solution amongst his remaining nourishment, some rope, a camera, his headlamp, backup batteries, and a multi-purpose tool. He got to work.

There are 24 hours in a day. Most people have more than one problem to solve in that time. Or, something to do to entertain themselves with the people who might pass by. The minutes go agonisingly slowly when we aren’t occupied or left to our loud thoughts.

Aron Ralston was trapped for five days.

He tied ropes, untied them and wracked through everything he learnt as a mechanical engineer. He pulled and screamed and calculated through his entrapment. Knots upon knots, potential pulley systems, angles of forces and just sheer panic spirals. He chipped away at dust and scraped with the knife of his multi-tool.

When the night came, darkness cascaded and so did the cold. He shivered and leaned against the boulder in defeat. The bag, ropes and harness piled around him to conserve warmth.

Some would say it was a stupid situation, exacerbated by the fact that no one knew where he was. No one knew of his canyon plans and had no reason to suspect a disappearance until he wouldn’t show up to work days later. The visual was something out of a cartoon like someone accidentally standing on an animal’s tail. No question that at that time, there was plenty of self-berating and devastation.

He stretched for the sunshine to creep over to his side of the canyon. Each minute to dawn brought a blurry sense of time.

Hours passed with new techniques. He grabbed a smaller rock and attempted a hammer-chisel strategy. It flung the knife nearly out of reach from his foot. He gazed over his food and water with heartache.

‘I’ll die before help arrives, I can't excavate my hand, I can't lift the boulder, and I can't cut off my arm. A sinking depression hits me for the first time. I whimper to myself: "I am going to die."'

On day 4, he scratched his name and date of birth into the wall. He recorded a goodbye video for his family and closed his eyes.

Then, the night after he consumed the last remains, something bizarre happened. He envisioned holding a child with a prosthetic right arm. In a state of half-consciousness, it was apparent that he considered it but after many superficial cuts, he discounted the idea of the impossibility of cutting through bone.

When he deliriously found the morning sun again, it was this or the end. He realised that he could break his bones by force. A make-shift tourniquet would hold everything in place. This was it. He took a breath and gripped his knife.

He climbed out of the slot, rappelled down the slope and hiked for 6 miles. It was 4 hours after the surgery that a family found him and got help.

He would go on to recover in a hospital, and regain 25% of his lost blood volume. Years later, he got married and held his child with his prosthetic arm. Speeches and a book inspired many. The arm left behind was recovered and cremated. After some careful reflection, he went back to climb. Despite it all, he continued to find solace in the adventures of his life even though for the sake of remaining mentally grounded and having healthy modes of finding esteem, it became at a smaller scale.

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Obviously, I don’t mean that you should literally cut off your arm, as the title says. Unless you are indeed trapped by a boulder and there’s no one to help you and it’s been a few days of trying everything with your supplies.

But there’s something very beautiful and meaningful in this story. When we hear it, we feel the nauseating horror of being in that place. Forced to make a choice.

But, in some ways, this isn’t an inapplicable allegory. The situation is far from rare if we consider other versions of it.

If you are stuck in some sense in your life and the only way free is to cut something out, how far is it possible to go? When your mind screams in all the ways. How can you cut something so essential to your survival? An arm you depend on for as long as you can remember. Yet it has become the very thing that’s holding you back from living. Keeping it would be a death sentence.

This can come in so many forms. A physical hindrance, bad habit, draining job, toxic relationships, mental hurdles, past traumas and so much more. It feels disingenuous to make a moral out of this plight but certainly, we have to consider that we have this kind of bravery in ourselves too. There comes a time when it will make sense and it only comes down to choice.

Let it be known that many people have done this in their way. We might not understand it in a gutting concept as dire as a trapped arm in a canyon but the context of their lives will show that they’ve survived the unimaginable.

We have to be like Aron Ralston to make it in this world. Sometimes, we have to cut. It’s painful and there might be no one around to support in the moment. It will feel desperate, maddening and intuitively confusing but we have to. It’s not just survival. It’s everything after.