A survivor shares miracle to inspire others
Published: September 21, 2004
Aron Ralston never expected a day hike near Moab, Utah, would turn into a world-famous story of will and endurance.
But when a misstep caused an 800-pound boulder to roll and crush his arm in the depths of a remote slot canyon, Ralston was pushed by the prospect of solitary death to accomplish the impossible.
On May 1, 2003, Ralston deliberately broke his arm, amputated it using a crude multitool blade, then hiked and rappelled seven miles to meet rescuers.
The 27-year-old mountaineer had been trapped in a crevice of Blue John Canyon with only two burritos and 22 ounces of water to sustain him, and experts consider it a miracle that he didn’t die of hypothermia, dehydration, shock or blood loss.
Now, less than two years later, Ralston has documented his survival story in Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Atria Books, 2004, $26 hardback), which he will read from and sign Wednesday at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.
Ralston spoke about his new book and life after the accident.
QUESTION: How does it feel to be in the media spotlight again?
ANSWER: It’s been something like the equivalent of an endurance athletic event. I’ve done 21 interviews in about 10 hours. But the fact that I’m here means that this miracle happened in my life, and I need to share that with people. Even when I’m not feeling as chipper or fresh about it, I need to find the means to share it, because this story touches people.
Q: You’ve been in several life-threatening situations. Do you think you could ever be happy in a life that didn’t involve risk-taking?
A: I can’t wait. If I didn’t feel compelled to do these things I would certainly have a different life. I went out and ran a 100-mile race a few weeks ago, and I still have pain in my legs. Running isn’t something that I enjoy, but I do it because I feel compelled. . . .
I hope that at some point I can get as much fulfillment from sitting in a coffeehouse or going to a play as I do solo hiking a fourteener (14,000-foot mountain). But right now I don’t feel fulfilled when I’m living like that.
Q: You’ve said that those six days in Blue John Canyon were the hardest of your life, but that you wouldn’t trade them for anything. What did you mean by that?
A: Part of it is the perspective that it’s given me, the appreciation and love of my friends and my family, the perspective it’s given me about the priorities in my life. One of my priorities is to tell this story.
If I had to do it all over again, knowing what the outcome would be, I wouldn’t change a thing. I still would have gone in without telling anyone my itinerary; I still wouldn’t have taken any painkillers or warm clothes. All of those things - the circumstances of this story - were what created it, and to alter them would take away from it, would take away from the inspiration that people get from the story.
I couldn’t do that knowing there are people out there who were suicidal and decided not to kill themselves, or people who are in pain from an illness and find the strength to go through with it because of my story.
Q: Experts have said that you were saved by remaining calm in a crisis situation. But it wasn’t until you lost your composure that you discovered you could break the bones in your arm and amputate.
A: It’s sort of ironic, I think, that that moment of panic is what got me out. There’s something certain, though: The calmness that I maintained for the first six days physiologically allowed me to survive.
If I had been in a state of panic or fright, that would’ve killed me long before dehydration had set in. It was the calmness that took me through it, and it was the panic that delivered me from the entrapment. As soon as I felt the bones bend in that oddly peculiar way I felt a surge of power.
Q: How did you research the parts of the story that took place outside of the canyon, especially your mom’s attempts to retrace your trail?
A: Well, I sat down with my mom for a couple of long interviews, which was emotionally very difficult for the both of us. . . .
I did a lot of other interviews, too - with my roommate, my manager, co-workers, mom, sister, dad and several of my friends who were in contact with her by e-mail. I realized through all of my research that it was such a tenuous process that led to the discovery of my truck.
The park service provided me with an incident report. It enabled me to see how the (rescue) helicopter got to where it was, and how I got to where I was, and how tight the intersection of those two paths was. Half an hour on either side, and I would have bled to death. For me, it reinforces the fact that this was a miracle.
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