CHAPTER FOUR
Night and day
After Kristi and Megan left Aron, they got lost in the west canyon and arrived late at the meeting place. He wasn't there. 'He's probably left already,' said Megan, 'but he can't be far away. Let's drive around and see if we can find him.' But there was no sign of Aron or his bike. 'It doesn't really matter,' said Megan. 'We'll see him at the party.'
Again, she was wrong. By the time they reached Goblin Valley, the parking lot was full and there was nowhere to stay for the night. The girls now felt very tired and decided not to go to the party. 'We'll drive to Little Wild Horse Canyon tomorrow morning,' said Megan. 'We'll probably find Aron there.' Kristi agreed and they parked by the side of the road for the night.
The next morning, there was no sign of Aron at Little Wild Horse Canyon. All they found was a truck from Colorado with a bike inside and skis on the roof. 'That's probably Aron's truck,' said Megan. 'He must be in the canyon already. We've missed him again.' She wrote their email addresses on a piece of paper and left it on the truck window. 'Why didn't we just get his phone number?' Megan asked as they drove back to Moab.
15 hrs 15 mins
12:00 am
My headlamp is on and I'm chipping at the boulder. I've managed to chip a space above and below an area of pink rock. Perhaps I can remove this large piece before I stop for the night. I will need to hit it hard. I don't want to break the knife, so I use a different part of the multi-tool. I hit the boulder as hard as I can and the piece of rock falls onto my trapped arm. I can now see some softer rock below.
I chip at the rock for another hour and remove as much as the piece that came off before. More success, but my left arm hurts and I have to stop. I take a sip of water. I have decided to do this every ninety minutes. I look up at the sky. It's a clear night and it's very cold. Now that I've stopped chipping I feel cold. The wind is the worst.
Every few minutes, it blows down the canyon and makes my body shake. I decide to use my climbing bag as a jacket to keep warm. I lay everything inside it on top of the boulder. Then I put the bag back on. I'm a little warmer but I need something soft to put my legs on. I take my rope, form it into a circle, and lay it on a rock below me. Now I can rest my knees instead of standing up all the time.
After a while, I begin to feel uncomfortable again. The problem is the weight on my legs. I decide to try and build some kind of seat. I put on my harness and rope. Then I tie carabiners to one end of the rope and make a kind of ball. The idea is to throw the rope over one of the boulders above my head. If I do it right, the ball will stick in the space between the boulder and the canyon wall.
It takes twenty-five throws before it lands in the right place. Now, will it hold my weight? I sit in the harness. It holds. Success! I feel very happy. But I'm not comfortable for long. I soon need to move again. I stand and chip for twenty minutes, then sit and rest for twenty minutes. This becomes my routine.
As morning comes, I'm not feeling too unhappy. This first night was not as bad as I thought. I've done quite well, but one thought still worries me: I haven't chipped much rock from the boulder. At this speed, it will take me 150 hours to free my trapped arm. Chipping is not enough. I will have to think of something else.
