On April 26, 2003, during a solo descent of Bluejohn Canyon in southeastern Utah, he dislodged a boulder, pinning his right wrist to the side of the canyon wall. After five days, he had to break his forearm, amputate it with a dull pocket knife to break free, make his way through the rest of the canyon, rappel down a 65-foot (20 m) drop, and hike 7 miles (11 km) to safety.[2][3]
After the accident he continued mountaineering and became the first person to ascend all of Colorado's fourteeners solo in winter.
Early life
Aron Ralston was born on October 27, 1975, in Marion, Ohio.[1] He and his family moved to Denver in the 1980's when he was 12, where he attended Cherry Creek High School and learned to ski and backpack. He received his college degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, finishing with degrees in mechanical engineering and French, with a minor in piano.[3] At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a resident assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural sports participant.[4][3]: 343 He also worked as a rafting guide during the summer.[3]: 42
Ralston worked as a mechanical engineer with Intel in Chandler, Tacoma and Albuquerque for five years, but found himself burned out by working in a large corporation. During his time as an engineer he had built up skills in mountaineering, and in 2002 he quit in order to climb Denali. He moved to Aspen, Colorado in order to pursue a life of climbing mountains.[3]: 72
Ralston began working towards his goal of climbing all of Colorado's "fourteeners"—peaks over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) altitude, of which there are 59—solo and during winter (a feat that had never been recorded before). In 2003, he was caught in a Grade 5 avalanche on Resolution Peak, Colorado with his skiing partners Mark Beverly and Chadwick Spencer. No one was seriously injured, but his friends did not speak to him in the aftermath, causing him to reevaluate his approach to risk management.[3]: 141
Canyoneering accident
In the afternoon hours on April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston was canyoneering alone through Bluejohn Canyon, in eastern Wayne County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National Park. While he was descending the lower stretches of the slot canyon, a suspended boulder dislodged while he was climbing down from it. The boulder first smashed his left hand, and then crushed his right hand against the canyon wall.[5] Ralston had not informed anyone of his hiking plans, nor did he have any way to call for help.
Assuming that he would die without intervention, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water, approximately 350 ml (12 imp fl oz), and slowly eating his small amount of food, two burritos, while repeatedly trying to extricate his arm. His efforts were futile as he was unable to free his arm from the 800 lb (360 kg) chockstone. After three days of trying to lift and break the boulder, the dehydrated and delirious Ralston prepared to amputate his trapped arm at a point on the mid-forearm in order to escape. After having experimented with tourniquets and having made exploratory superficial cuts to his forearm, he realized, on the fourth day, that in order to free his arm he would have to cut through the bones in it, but the tools available were insufficient to do so.[3][6]
After running out of food and water on the fifth day, Ralston decided to drink his own urine. He carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the sandstone canyon wall, and videotaped his last goodbyes to his family. He did not expect to survive the night, but as he attempted to stay warm he began hallucinating and had a vision of himself playing with a future child while missing part of his right arm. Ralston credited this as giving him the belief that he would live.[3]: 248 [7]
After waking at dawn the following day he discovered that his arm had begun to decompose due to the lack of circulation, and became desperate to tear it off.[3]: 279 Ralston then had an epiphany that he could break his radius and ulna bones using torque against his trapped arm. He did so, then amputated his forearm with his multi-tool, using the dull 2-inch (50 mm) knife and pliers for the tougher tendons. The painful process took an hour, during which time he used tubing from a CamelBak as a tourniquet, taking care to leave major arteries until last. The manufacturer of the multi-tool was never named, but Ralston said "it was not a Leatherman but what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool."[8][3]
After freeing himself, Ralston climbed out of the slot canyon in which he had been trapped, rappelled down a 65-foot (20 m) sheer wall, then hiked out of the canyon. He was 8 miles (13 km) from his vehicle, and had no phone. However, after 6 miles (9.7 km) of hiking, he encountered a family on vacation from the Netherlands; Eric and Monique Meijer and their son Andy, who gave him food and water and hurried to alert the authorities. Ralston had feared he would bleed to death; he had lost 40 pounds (18 kg), including 25% of his blood volume.[9] Rescuers searching for Ralston, alerted by his family that he was missing, had narrowed the search down to Canyonlands and he was picked up by a helicopter in a wide area of the canyon. He was rescued approximately four hours after amputating his arm.[3]
Ralston later said that if he had amputated his arm earlier, he would have bled to death before being found, while if he had not done it he would have been found dead in the slot canyon days later.[10]
His severed hand and forearm were retrieved from under the boulder by park authorities. According to television presenter Tom Brokaw,[11] it took 13 men, a winch and a hydraulic jack to move the boulder so that Ralston's arm could be removed. His arm was then cremated and the ashes given to Ralston. He returned to the accident scene with Tom Brokaw and a camera crew six months later, on his 28th birthday, to film a Dateline NBC special about the accident in which he scattered the ashes of his arm there, where he said they belong.
After the accident
Ralston in the mountains of central Colorado, near Independence Pass, Aspen, in 2009
After the accident occurred, Ralston made numerous appearances in the media.[12] On July 21, 2003, Ralston appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and his story was featured by GQ's "Men of the Year" and Vanity Fair's "People of 2003".[9][3]: 340
Ralston documented his experience in an autobiographical book titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published by Atria Books in September 2004. It reached No. 3 on The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction list. It hit No. 1 in New Zealand and Australia, and is the No. 7 best-selling memoir of all-time in the United Kingdom.[12] Later that month, Ralston's story was featured on a two-hour edition of Dateline NBC called "Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon".[11]
After his recovery he continued to climb mountains, including Aconcagua in 2005,[15] and in 2008, Ojos del Salado in Chile and Monte Pissis in Argentina.[16] In 2005, Ralston became the first person to climb all of the 59 ranked and/or named of Colorado's 'fourteeners' solo in winter, a project he started in 1997 and resumed after the amputation in Bluejohn Canyon.[17][18][19]
In 2006, Ralston was featured as a panelist in Miller Lite's "Man Laws" ad campaign.[12][20][21]
He later noted that surviving being trapped in the canyon had given him a sense of invincibility, at a time that it should have humbled him. He lost friends to suicide, and became depressed after his girlfriend broke up with him in 2006. He has since tried to shift his focus away from adventure-seeking for esteem purposes.[22][23]
In 2008, Ralston signed on to advise polar explorer Eric Larsen on his 2009–2010 "Save the Poles" expedition, of traveling to the north and south poles, and climbing Mount Everest (sometimes referred to as the third pole) within the same year.[24][25][26][27]
In August 2009, Ralston married Jessica Trusty. Their first child was born in February 2010. They divorced in early 2012.[28][29][30]
In December 2013, Ralston and his girlfriend, Vita Shannon, who have a daughter together, were both arrested after an altercation at their home. The circumstances of the altercation are unclear. Charges against Ralston were dropped shortly after, and charges against Shannon were dropped after Ralston did not show up to a court hearing.[36][37][38] According to the affidavit, Ralston "was struck twice in the back of the head with fists by (Shannon), after an argument they had regarding the victim's other son." Shannon alleged in return, that Ralston "shoved her on the shoulder".[39]
Public speaking
As a corporate speaker, Ralston receives an honorarium of about $25,000 per domestic speaking appearance, and up to $37,000 for international speeches.[40] On May 4, 2007, Ralston appeared at the Swiss Economic Forum and gave a speech about how he "lost his hand, but gained his life back."
The film received widespread acclaim by critics; review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of 239 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.2/10.[45]
Of the authenticity of 127 Hours, Ralston has said that the film is "so factually accurate it is as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama," and he jokingly added that he thought it is "the best film ever made."[46]
^Aron Ralston (August 2006). "My Summit Problem". Outside Magazine. Archived from the original on September 2, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2007. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
^"14ers.com". 14ers Inc. Archived from the original on November 19, 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
