Sfports/Outdoors: Aron Ralston

Mountain climber/hiker Aron Ralston came to instant celebrity in May 2003 in a most painful way. He was climbing alone in the Robber's Roost area of Blue John Canyon near Moab, Utah, when an 800-pound boulder fell to one side and pinned part of his right arm.

Ralston, a Phi Beta Kappa engineering student, remained pinned there for five days, exhausted his supply of water, and had to resort to drinking his own urine to survive.

Finally, in a desperate move, he snapped the bones in his forearm and with his all-purpose tool's knife blade,cut off his arm below the elbow.

Although starving, dehydrated and disoriented, he somehow managed to rappel down the rock wall he had been climbing and to hike until he encountered two hikers who helped him.

Ralston, who earlier that year was almost killed in an avalanche, has been much in demand on the motivational speaker circuit. He has continued climbing and now has climbed all of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains.