Story here.

-Blast

Heard the story on the news today. I wish there were a few more details. I assume he tried to use his knives to cut or dig his way free of the tree first, and that proved impossible. I assume his situation was such that he was pretty sure no one was looking for him. In the absence of more facts, it's hard to draw a lot of conclusions from the incident.

Of course, each of us is silently asking the question, could I do that if I had to?

Every time this type of story comes out, I think along the lines of "this guy rocks." Mainly because s/he does what he must - a mindset that I feel sometimes gets lost in the big picture.

However, pertinent to this forum:
Was he equipped to survive?

Or "just" strong enough to do whatever he had to?

"... After freeing himself, he cried out for help, and a neighbor passing through this sparsely populated area heard him..."

Ya gotta wonder about the time frame here. He cuts his leg off, then yells for help and someone hears him. Had he waited to cut and just yelled, the outcome might have been different...

A nightmare scenario that I keep thinking about is getting stuck in quicksand, especially if it's cold swamp and hypothermia is likely or it's on a shore and the tide is rising or its drying out and it becomes as hard as concrete. You obviously can't even amputate yourself. All you can do is blowing a whistle, flash the sky with a signal mirror or use a PLB.

Seems something as simple as a whistle on the keychain might have made a difference here, maybe not. But at least it would have greatly increased his chances of being heard.

I would have to agree with you there. Could it be that in a some of the cases of this type, which make the news media, some are really just Apotemnophilia cases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotemnophilia

That's a good point. Granted I have no idea how bad the conditions or circumstances were that this guy was in but taking off your own leg after only 11 hours seems a bit over-eager to me. I'm not sure if I could actually do it if I had to but I'm pretty sure I would lay there a lot longer than 11 hours before trying unless there was some unknown intervening issue that forced me to sooner. I wonder if this guy saw the movie "Saw" too many times.

I live "near" where the incident happened, the logger (NOT "hiker")had a cellphone with him, but coverage is VERY spotty throughout the area and also I rember hearing that the individual happens to be diabetic (which puts an upper limit on the time one can be away from food, drugs etc.)

So, another logger injured/maimed/killed because the fool was cutting down trees by himself. And a diabetic one, to boot.

Yawn.....

I've lived here in logging country for 13 years now and, aside from junkies and politicians, I don't know anything dumber than a logger. They're the kings of "It won't happen to me".

Too bad, so sad.

Sue