Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Aron Ralston, the American climber who, incredibly, amputated his own arm after becoming trapped by a shifting boulder has written a book about his extraordinary escape.

Trapped for five days after the boulder moved and pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall, the 27-year old experienced climber tried to chip the boulder away with his pocket knife, rigged a pulley system to attempt to lift the rock. Eventually, after five days, and suffering from dehydration, sleep deprivation and hunger, he concluded that the only chance he had of survival was to sever his arm.

Before he could do that though, he had to break the bones in his arm because he knew the knife would be too blunt to cut through them.

The book which tells the story of his ordeal is titled 'Between A Rock And A Hard Place' - guess it had to be - and according to the UK publisher, Simon and Schuster, 'will take its place among adventure classics such as Touching The Void'.

A quick extract reads:

'Clammy supernatural cold sucks my body of its heat and my shivering escalates to its most intense level of my five nights. The canyon is an icebox. Each night has been progressively harder, but not yet has the suffering been greater than it is when the breezes wallop me on their sweep through the canyon. These are the killing winds.'

'Between A Rock And A Hard Place' is published in hardback in the UK on 4 October by Simon and Schuster, priced at £14.99. More about the book here.