On Thursday morning, Ralston is surprised to find that he’s still alive; however, he notes that the raven that passed overhead each previous day doesn’t pass this morning. He attempts to play some music but finds that sand has ruined his compact discs. He records another message, inviting his family to play a tape of his recorded piano performances during Sonja’s upcoming wedding. After a few minutes of furiously pounding on the boulder with a rock, he examines his trapped arm, which appears to be rotting.

In an epiphany, Ralston realizes that he can break the bone of his forearm by torquing it across the boulder itself. Without any hesitation, Ralston drops his bodyweight until his radius bone cracks loudly, then moves upward, across the boulder until his ulna does the same. At 10:32 am, without even applying a tourniquet, and riding a wave of emotion, Ralston begins cutting the tissue of his arm with his knife, cutting first the skin, then the muscle, separating and leaving the arteries for later to minimize blood loss. After 20 minutes, he pauses to apply his tourniquet. Struggling to cut some difficult tendons, he reconfigures his multitool as pliers, which he uses to twist and tear the tendon.