Climber Resting After Surgery

An Aspen climber who used a pocketknife to amputate his arm to save his life in a remote Utah canyon is resting after surgery today to prepare his arm for a prosthetic device.

That's according to Aron Ralston's parents and doctors.

"Our son Aron is a very positive and strong person both physically and strong-willed, and those who know him well have not been so amazed at his initial reaction to the situation as some of you may have been," said Donna Ralston. "They also know that this will not deter him from following his passion for the outdoors and his climbing love. He will just have to do a few adjustments on how he does that."

Ralston's arm had been pinned under an 800-pound boulder while he was climbing alone in a remote area of Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

Doctors say they shortened a bone in his arm by an inch and pulled the skin over the wound — and Ralston is expected to stay in the hospital through Friday or Saturday.

His parents — Larry and Donna Ralston — also spoke about their son's ordeal. They say they are upbeat about their son's condition and they also defended his quest for adventure.

It took 13 workers half the day Sunday to move the 800-pound boulder that had trapped Ralston.

Workers used a hoist and hydraulic jacks to lift the huge egg-shaped rock off a canyon ledge in Utah and place it in a location where it is less likely to injure anyone else.

Ralston - who became trapped on April 26 and cut himself free five days later, when he ran out of water - had originally hoped authorities could retrieve and reattach his lost limb.

His description of where it could be found was quite accurate - but when Ralston finally was rescued and taken to a hospital last Thursday, it was already too late to save the limb.

The lower portion of his arm was recovered Sunday and taken to a mortuary.

Sawing off the limb wasn't the only test of grit for Ralston, who tied a tourniquet on himself, rappelled down the canyon, and wound up having to hike five miles before being spotted by some Dutch tourists.

Search and rescue is part of patrol in the wilderness but local authorities say they have never seen anything like this before.

Sgt. Mitch Vetere, who was flagged down by the Dutch tourists who found Ralston, didn't know what to think when he saw a man, bloody from head to toe, in the bottom of a canyon, streaks of red staining his bare legs. Part of his arm was gone.

Vetere wasn't sure what had happened. "I cut it off with my pocketknife," Ralston told him, matter of factly.

Then he told his story.

Saturday, April 26, started as a routine day of climbing for Ralston, an avid outdoorsman and expert climber. He planned to spend the day riding his mountain bike and climbing the red rocks and sandstone just outside the Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah -350,000 acres of mostly wilderness with areas of buttes, mesas and intricate canyons.

He had climbed alone before plenty of times. He had scaled 49 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks in the winter and this outing was a warm-up for an ascent of Alaska's Mount McKinley.

Ralston parked his pickup truck in a parking lot, took off on his mountain bike for 15 miles, then tied it to a juniper tree.

He planned to canyoneer down remote Blue John Canyon and end up where he parked his truck, then go back for the bike.

Canyoneering is when a climber uses rock-climbing gear to negotiate narrow canyons, moving in a horizontal direction rather than vertical.

Ralston was maneuvering around a narrow slot canyon about 3 feet wide when he put his right hand on the side of a boulder, and it shifted, pinning his hand.

He was trapped.

Ralston tried ropes, anchors, anything to move the boulder, but it wouldn't budge. He continued to work to free himself despite low nighttime temperatures.

By Tuesday, his water ran out.

No climbers had come by.

When Ralston didn't show up for his job at the Ute Mountaineer store in Aspen, friends called authorities.

Vetere, a patrol sergeant with the Emery County Sheriff's Office in Green River, got the call Thursday morning. A climber was several days overdue. His truck had been found, but no one had seen Ralston.

Terry Mercer, a helicopter pilot with the Utah Highway Patrol in Salt Lake City, met Vetere and another deputy about 1 p.m. Thursday at Horseshoe Canyon, where Ralston's truck was parked.

After reading notes and looking at Ralston's equipment in his truck, Mercer and Vetere knew Ralston was an experienced climber. They figured he might have headed north up the trail, since it gets deeper and sharper the farther north it extends.

Hikers and climbers who parked in the same lot as Ralston said they had gone south and didn't see Ralston.

Mercer flew for about two hours. Nothing.

But just as he was about to land, he, Vetere and the other deputy looked down into the canyon and saw two people waving. They turned out to be the Dutch tourists who stumbled on Ralston as he tried to find help.

Vetere was shocked at the sight of the man, with a limb missing, his whole body covered with blood, but nonetheless radioed back to his command center that the climber "looks OK. He's walking. He looks pretty strong."

After Ralston was helped into the helicopter, Mercer peeked back at him. Ralston's right arm was in a makeshift sling made from a camelback used to carry water.

"I was wondering what in the world happened," Mercer said.

Ralston leaned his head back in the helicopter and sipped on some water. Vetere kept him talking, so he wouldn't lose consciousness.

Twelve minutes later, the helicopter arrived at Allen Memorial Hospital in Moab, Utah.

Ralston was later transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he is listed in fair condition.

Friends say Ralston is known for living on the edge.

"To be honest, sometimes we get pretty scared with some of the things he's doing," said Brion After, manager of the store where Ralston works.

His rescuers are still amazed at Ralston's will to live. They say he likely wouldn't have been found by a helicopter because of his position on the canyon wall.

"I've never seen anybody that had this much desire and this much tenacity to stay with it and stay alive," Mercer said.

Mercer and Vetere are used to seeing disoriented climbers who lose their way or just give up while waiting for help.

Aron Ralston is different, they say.

He saved himself.