Aron Ralston

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Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975) is an American mountain climber who became famous in May 2003 because he was forced to amputate his lower right arm with a low-quality multitool (a dull knife) in order to free himself after his arm became trapped by a boulder.

1 The amputation
2 Public appearances
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The amputation

Ralston was a student majoring in mechanical engineering and French at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a Resident Assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural sports participant, playing for the famous 69ers. He left his job as a mechanical engineer with Intel in 2002 to return to climb all of Colorado's "fourteeners", or peaks over 14,000 feet high. While on a canyoneering trip in Blue John Canyon (near Moab, Utah), a boulder fell and pinned his right forearm down, crushing it. After five days of trying to lift and break the boulder, a dehydrated and delirious Ralston bowed his arm against the chockstone and snapped the radius and ulna bones. Using the dull blade on his multiuse tool, he cut the soft tissue around the break. He then used the tool's pliers to tear at the tougher tendons. Although he didn't name which brand (other than to say it was not Leatherman), he did describe it as “what you’d get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool.”^[1]

After being rescued, his arm was retrieved by park authorities and removed from under the boulder. It was cremated and given to Ralston. He returned to the boulder and left the ashes there.

[edit] Public appearances

He is now a public speaker, predominantly non-profit, and still climbs mountains prolifically, his most recent one being in Argentina. In 2005, Ralston became the first person to climb all of Colorado's mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation solo in winter, a project he started in 1997 and had to put on hold due to his accident in Blue John Canyon^[2]

On July 21, 2003, Ralston appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

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 documented his experience in a book titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published by Atria Books on 7 September 2004. ISBN 0-7434-9281-1

On September 13, 2005 he made an appearance on Howard Stern's nationally syndicated radio program to promote his book. During the interview Ralston revealed several details about his ordeal, including the facts that his hand had already "died" from lack of circulation days before he amputated it, that he used the boulder that trapped his hand as a leverage device to break the bones in his arm, and he had to drink his own urine for several days after running out of his rationed water. After freeing himself he was still eight miles from his truck (which incidentally was a stick shift) and he had no cell phone. He had to rappel down a 65-foot sheer wall then began to hike out of the canyon in the hot midday sun. After finally meeting with other hikers in the canyon (a family of three on vacation from the Netherlands) he was given food (two Oreo cookies, all they had) and water and ultimately rescued via helicopter by a search team.

On October 6, 2005, Ralston appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Ralston was given mention in Maddox's tribute to real men.^[3]

Ralston currently appears as a panelist in Miller Lite's "Man Laws" ad campaign.