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When he regains his composure, Aron takes a quick inventory of everything he has in his possession. Unfortunately, he has left his phone in the car. His next step of action is to try to chip away at the rock with a knife. He does this for about two days but slowly realizes the futility of his efforts. His hand actually had been supporting the boulder, so the more he chips away, the more the rock settles.

On the third day, Aron devises a plan to try to pull the boulder off his arm. He cleverly rigs a system of pulleys with climbing clips and his ropes. Unfortunately, this plan fails because climbing rope is stretchy, preventing him from obtaining enough tension to move the rock. In between attempts to free himself, Aron also uses his video camera to document his ordeal.
Aside from the fact that he was stuck, Aron also had to deal with the extreme temperatures. At night it would get very cold and during the day, because of his location, he would only get a very short amount of sunlight.

Eventually Aron had to face the possibility that the only way out would be to cut off his trapped hand. He devises a tourniquet and makes some superficial cuts, but realizes the blade he has is too dull to cut through his flesh.

The longer Aron is trapped, the more we see him rubbing his heart. His blood had thickened a lot because the boulder prevented it from fully circulating. Aron was actually on the verge of a heart attack.

It was on the fourth day that he finally accepted that he wasn’t going to be found and he realizes that the only way to get out would be to cut off his right hand. He began by stabbing his arm with the knife. Unfortunately, to cut off his hand, Aron would have to cut through bone and his dull blade would not be able to do this. Having run out of water, the next day he had to drink his own urine which he had saved in his camelback hydration pack.

Certain that he will die there Aron records a final message for his family with his video camera. He also etches his name, birth date, what he thought would be the date of his death and RIP on the side of the mountain. But in the morning he has a vision of himself with a young boy. He took this to be a vision of him and his future son. This gave Aron the determination to finally free himself.

Although he still couldn’t cut through his bone, he worked around this by forcing his arm against the boulder. This broke his bones and allowed him to cut through the tissue. After enduring through the grueling experience of cutting his own arm off, Aron is finally free. Once the initial shock wears off, Aron wraps his arm in a plastic bag and uses his backpack to cover his arm. He snaps a picture of where he was trapped and goes on his way.

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