chockstones

Once I reach the narrow slot, there will be some short sections of downclimbing, maneuvering over and under a series of chockstones, then 125 yards of very tight slot, some of it only eighteen inches wide, to get to the platform where two bolt-and-hanger sets provide an anchor for the rappel.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

I bob my head to the music as I walk another twenty yards and come to a series of three chockstones and scramble over them.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

I bob my head to the music as I walk another twenty yards and come to a series of three chockstones and scramble over them.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

Then I see another five chockstones, all the size of large refrigerators, wedged at varying heights off the canyon floor like a boulder gauntlet.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

In my path are two van-sized chockstones a hundred feet apart.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

For me, each one of those chockstones I crawled over or under represents a diminished likelihood that I would survive the time it would take to evacuate my useless body.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

Did some free downclimbing…not too bad…got to the second set of chockstones.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

Because one of the chockstones pulled out as I was pulling on it, climbing off of it, and it slid down, smashed, and trapped my right hand.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

Facing upcanyon from my manacling point, I guess at the contours and edges that may or may not exist on top of the chockstones that form the shelf above and in front of me.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004

Squirming my way over small chockstones, I stem my body across the gap between the walls to follow the plunging canyon floor.

127 Hours Aron Ralston 2004