Between a Rock and a Hard Place

As the sun rises after Ralston’s first night in the canyon, he takes a break from chipping at the rock. Determined to act, he plans to use his climbing gear to rig up a rope system that he can potentially use to move the boulder. After two hours of effort, he manages to securely snag webbing over a horn-like protrusion in the canyon, and he rewards himself with a sip of water. Despite adding a makeshift pulley system to give himself a mechanical advantage, and after using all of his strength and body weight, the boulder remains unmoved.

Around one o’clock in the afternoon, Ralston hears voices and calls for help but then realizes that the noises came from a nearby kangaroo rat. About an hour later, he considers amputation seriously for the first time. His first attempt to create a tourniquet with tubing from his empty CamelBak falls short, but he succeeds on the second attempt, using webbing. Ralston again abandons the idea after he touches the skin of his arm with the blade of his knife and feels sickened.

Frustrated, Ralston indulges in “adolescent anger” for a few minutes and then shifts to blaming his lifestyle and choices for what happened.