JUST ANOTHER HIGHPOINTING ALMOST

One of the gifts Diane gave me to celebrate my birthday recently was a copy of Between a Rock and a Hard Place. We had both seen the first Sep, '04 DatelineNBC/Brokaw interview with Ralston, "Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon." Mind-blowing stuff! I'm just getting into this hard-to-put-down, well written book. Actually, receiving it brought back the memory of our IN hp visit on Sept 5,'03.

We took our pictures and signed the log. Diane manages to spend extra of our time to read those things and, in this case, despite all the friggin' mosquitos there. She got especially excited over her find in the Hoosier Highpoint log. Apparently, Ralston had been there a few days before with his grandmother who we'd heard lived nearby. We assumed the log entry was authentic based on that fact and the squiggly handwriting.

Diane actually video-taped the log and the sign-in read in part, "Aron, 'the hiker who amputated his arm,' Ralston."And, "My grandmother's first official high point." Dated, Aug 29, '03. Also, we'd heard Aron was indeed a member of the Highpointers Club (he's listed in the '05 directory with 43 states but is now a 50-Kompleter) and, thusly, a highpointer. So...it musta been him, one of the club's celebs. We were disappointed that we missed so close an encounter of the third-kind with him, the remarkable survivor of a harrowing Out There experience.

Doing some web research, I discovered that there's a plethora of internet sites featuring Aron Ralston the auto-amputee, mountaineer, and high pointer extraodinaire, his experience presented every which way, his book, and his "tour" schedule. As a member of the HPers Club, (doesn't that make him akin to us?) it sure would be great if Aron could be asked and agreed to speak at one of the upcoming Konventions. But, he's quite the popular guy and for that to happen, I suppose, leaves the club between a rock and a hard place. Maybe. Write the '06 Konvention Kommittee. We Want Aron!
Interview: .: THE GUNKS :.