Climber Pinned by Boulder Cuts Off Arm to Live - Fri May 2, 1:48 PM ET

DENVER (Reuters) - A mountaineer pinned by a heavy boulder in an eastern Utah desert cut off his right arm with a pocketknife after he determined that was the only way he would survive, officials said on Friday.

"He's pretty darn tough. He wanted to live. He saved himself," Sgt. Mitch Vetere of the Emery County Sheriff's Office in Green River, Utah, told Reuters.

Aron Ralston, 27, of Aspen, Colorado, used a pocketknife to cut off his arm below the elbow, then rappelled down a rock wall and hiked until he ran into some hikers who flagged down a rescue helicopter 60 miles south of Green River on Thursday. He had applied a tourniquet to his arm.

--Sometimes I think I have a bad day.