Movie "127 Hours" - Nov 5, 2010

[Torch09]

What "cardinal rule" would have made a difference? At best, instead of 5 days it may have been two or three before they found him. I doubt anything would have saved his arm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackhammer

[shwn354]

As mentioned, it is a true story of someone getting away with doing stupid things for years until it finally caught up with him and he was forced to cut his own arm off.

Animals will chew their own limbs off to survive traps. I don't consider anyone who does what they have to for the sake of survival a hero, and I think it says quite a bit about the sensationalistic world we live in that acting like a moron gets you a book contract and a movie deal.

I don't think he got a book and movie because he was acting like a moron. it's because it was a great story. He freely admits that in many cases he took unnecessary risks, and he clearly paid a price for it. he made some careless mistakes and learned a valuable lesson. This is a cautionary tale. And his career as a hand model is over, so he needs to make money somehow.

[Mags]

I've been to Blue John Canyon (where he cut off his arm). Like most of the canyon country of Utah...it is a freakin' remote place.

Also, like most of the canyon country of Utah, it is spectacular country, too...

[GracefulRoll]

Long before everyone had a cell phone, I used to give the phone # of the local ranger station and Sheriff's department of where I'd be hiking to someone at home, along with an expected return date. It wasn't a requirement or a duty. But as I was wandering around in the desert in Arizona, I thought it prudent.

I know that was one aspect of not ending up in the kind of situation Ralston faced, in addition to being adequately supplied. The fact that you are the kind of person who ends up with extra food at the end of a trip says to me that you plan your trips better than Ralston ever did for any of his trips, not just the one where he got caught.

Agreed. I have a cell phone, granted it won't work in a lot of places, but I STILL tell people a couple of people exactly where I am/expect to be, and extra water and food/water left over is always in my plan in case it's an emergency ration.

I have people look at me like I'm nuts for carrying extra weight to keep more than 1 day's water/food on me even for a day hike, even when it's 90+ degrees. I assume nothing.

I was on a day hike and there was a troop of teenagers. A few had day packs and the rest carried nothing but their teenage bravado. It was a good 90+ degree day on the McAfee trail from 311. The spring near the Catawba shelter was trickling. There was this one kid who couldn't have been more than 14 or 15 and he literally put his face to the spring and started drinking. I shook my head and over my shoulder I gave this cautionary advice:

"Drinking water that can make you sick is like eating 'special' brownies when you're hungry. It's a vicious cycle."

He just laughed, told me that was the quote of his week, and somehow found enough signal on his phone to post that to Facebook. *face palm*

Whatever.

[Tuts]

What "cardinal rule" would have made a difference? At best, instead of 5 days it may have been two or three before they found him. I doubt anything would have saved his arm.

The general rule of thumb is to tell someone where you are going... also tell them THAT you are going. He didn't actually tell anyone he was going anywhere and wasn't due back to work for 3 days. He lived alone as well. Nobody was going to miss him for days. Because he didn't tell anyone where he was going, or even that he was going anywhere, he was in deep trouble when something went wrong. I've heard him speak and he freely admits this as a huge folly on his part.

The good rule of thumb is to find multiple people to tell where you are going to be and when you will be back. That way somebody can miss you when you don't get back on time. If this happened he would have been back safe and sound within a day. Search and rescue teams are very good at organizing and finding lost people when they have an idea where to look.

It's true that he wasn't prepared gear-wise to stay out for long, but he was not planning on staying out overnight. When I'm just going out for a day hike, I generally don't prepare to stay out overnight either. If somebody had been informed about his general location and return time, then this would not have been much of an issue.

Personally, I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants backpacker and like to wing it as I go. On the AT, though, this is generally alright due to the great numbers of people passing by in a given week. We also all tend to look after and keep tabs on one another. "Hey has anyone got word from or met Incognito? We hiked together for a while but I haven't seen him in the logs recently." That sort of thing is missed in such a remote area like those canyonlands. Most of us can vouch for this and it keeps us safer on trails like the AT. This being said, when I do my thru-hikes, my family has an idea of my pace so if I don't check in on occasion they would know about where I should be.

Bottom line. Rallston got into this situation innitially by an uncontrolable accident but the true depth of the problem came from his own basic mistake. A mistake that he freely admits.