Aron Ralston

Aron Lee Ralston
Ralston in October 2008
Born	October 27, 1975 (1975-10-27) Indianapolis, Indiana
Residence	Boulder, Colorado
Alma mater	Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Motivational speaker, mountaineer, engineer
Notable work(s)	Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Spouse	Jessica Trusty (m. 2009)
Children	Leo Ralston (b. 2010)
Parents	Donna Ralston Larry Ralston

Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975, in Indianapolis) is an American outdoorsman, engineer and motivational speaker.

He is widely known for having survived a canyoneering accident in south-eastern Utah in 2003, during which he was forced to amputate his own right arm with a dull multi-tool in order to free himself from a dislodged boulder, which had trapped him there for five days and seven hours.

The incident is documented in Ralston's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and is the subject of the film 127 Hours.

Background

Ralston was born on October 27, 1975, in Indianapolis, but he and his family moved to Denver when he was aged 11. He is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He received his college degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, finishing with degrees in mechanical engineering and French, with a minor in piano. At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a resident assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural sports participant. He left his job as a mechanical engineer with Intel in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2002 in order to pursue a life of climbing mountains. He had the goal of climbing all of Colorado's "fourteeners" — peaks over 14,000 ft high, of which there are 53 or 54, depending upon the definition parameters — solo and during winter (a feat that had never been recorded). He has subsequently achieved this goal.

In August 2009, Ralston married Jessica Trusty; their first child, Leo, was born in February 2010. The family resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Accident

On April 26, 2003, Ralston was hiking through Blue John Canyon, in eastern Wayne County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National Park. While descending a slot canyon, a suspended boulder from which he was climbing down became dislodged, crushing his right hand and forearm and pinning it against the canyon wall. Ralston had not told anybody of his hiking plans, thus no one would be searching for him.

Assuming that he would die, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water, approximately 350 ml (12 imp fl oz), while trying to extricate his arm. His efforts were futile as he could not 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 right arm at a point on the mid-forearm, in order to escape. He experimented with tourniquets and made some exploratory superficial cuts to his forearm in the first few days. On the fourth day he realized that in order to free his arm he would have to cut through the bones in it, but the tools he had available were insufficient to do so.

When he ran out of water on the fifth day, 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. After waking, still alive, at dawn the following day (Thursday, May 1) he had an epiphany that he could break his radius and ulna bones using torque against his trapped arm. He did so, and then performed the amputation, which took about one hour with his multi-tool, which included a dull two-inch knife. Although he never named the manufacturer of the tool he used, other than to say it was not a Leatherman, he did describe it as "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool."

After freeing himself, Ralston still had to get back to his car. He climbed out of the slot canyon in which he had been trapped, rappelled down a 65-foot (20 m) sheer wall one-handed, then hiked out of the canyon in the hot midday sun. He was 8 miles (13 km) from his vehicle, and had no phone. However, while hiking out, he encountered a family on vacation from the Netherlands, Eric and Monique Meijer with their son Andy, who gave him water and then hurried to alert the authorities. Ralston feared he would bleed to death before that happened (by this point, he had lost 40 pounds, including 25% of his blood volume), but by coincidence, rescuers searching for Ralston (they had been alerted that he was missing by his family and had recently narrowed the search down to Canyonlands) flew by in their helicopter and he was rescued, six hours after amputating his arm.

Ralston has 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 days in the slot canyon later. He believed he was looking forward to the amputation and the freedom it would give rise to.

Later, his severed hand and forearm was retrieved from under the boulder by park authorities. According to television presenter Tom Brokaw, it took 13 men, a winch and a hydraulic jack to move the boulder so that Ralston's arm could be removed. It was then cremated and given to Ralston. He returned to the accident scene with Brokaw and a camera crew six months later, on his 28th birthday, for two reasons: to film a Dateline NBC special about the accident, and to scatter the ashes of his arm where he says they belong.

Aftermath of accident

Mountaineering and adventuring

Ralston in the mountains of central Colorado, near Independence Pass, Aspen, in 2009.

After the accident, Ralston continued to climb mountains prolifically, including a 2008 expedition to climb Ojos del Salado in Chile and Monte Pissis in Argentina. In 2005, Ralston became the first person to climb all 53 of Colorado's 'fourteeners' solo in winter, a project he started in 1997 and resumed after the amputation in Blue John Canyon.

While Ralston intends to climb Mount Everest, he did not go along with polar explorer Eric Larsen on his "Save the Poles" expedition in 2010, as was previously reported.

Media appearances

After the accident, Ralston made numerous appearances in the media. On July 21, 2003, Ralston appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman; on October 6, 2005, Ralston appeared on The Late Late Show in Ireland.

On September 10, 2004, Ralston's story was featured on a two-hour edition of Dateline NBC called "Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon". Ralston has appeared twice on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CNN's American Morning with Bill Hemmer, Minute to Win It with James Franco, Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN Saturday Morning, and CNBC with Deborah Norville.

In 2006, Ralston was featured as a panelist in Miller Lite's "Man Laws" ad campaign. He also starred on the Australian interview show Enough Rope.

Ralston was also named GQ Man of the Year and a Vanity Fair Person of the Year in 2003. In the same year he was named the first Shining Star of Perseverance by the WillReturn Council of Assurant Employee Benefits. Ralston was a contestant on the U.S. television show Minute To Win It, where he won $125,000 for Wilderness Workshop. The episode aired on February 23, 2011, on NBC.

Ralston provides his voice on The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XXII" as the voice on the other end of Homer's phone when he calls for help after getting trapped in a similar situation to Ralston himself. The episode aired on October 30, 2011.

He took part in the reality show Alone in the Wild, where he had to 'survive' in the wild with a video camera and a bag of supplies. The episode was aired 9 November 9, 2011, on Discovery UK.

As a corporate speaker, Ralston receives an honorarium of about $15,000 per domestic speaking appearance, and up to $37,000 for international speeches. On May 4, 2007, Ralston appeared at the Swiss Economic Forum and gave a speech about "how he did not lose his hand, but gained his life back."

Ralston documented his experience in an autobiographical book entitled Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published by Atria Books on September 7, 2004. It reached #3 on The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction list. It hit #1 in New Zealand and Australia, and is the #7 best-selling memoir of all-time in the United Kingdom.

Ralston delivered the commencement speech on May 15, 2011, at Carnegie Mellon University for the graduating class of 2011.

127 Hours

Ralston at the Toronto premiere of 127 Hours.

Main article: 127 Hours

British film director Danny Boyle directed the film 127 Hours about Ralston's accident. Filming took place in March and April 2010, with a release in New York City and Los Angeles on November 5, 2010. Fox Searchlight Pictures funded the film. Actor James Franco played the role of Ralston. The movie received standing ovations at both the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Some members of the audience in Toronto fainted during the final amputation scene.

The film was well-received by film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of 197 professional critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 8.2 out of 10.

At the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011 the film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture (won by The King's Speech) and Best Actor for Franco (won by Colin Firth for his role in The King's Speech). 127 Hours was also nominated in the categories for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Editing.

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 added that he thought it is "the best film ever made."

External links

• Cannonball by Atlanta Rock band Capibara: A song inspired by Aron Ralston
• Redux: A Climber's Survival Tale
• Aron Ralston: in his own words
• The story on BBC-Outlook (26min)
• The Official 127 Hours UK Facebook Page
• The Official 127 Hours UK Twitter Page
• NBC's Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6