No 66 Aron Ralston’s incredible story of survival is now a nerve-shredding film What started as a ‘walk in the park’ became a 127- hour ordeal that forced an American mountaineer to amputate his arm. He talks to Alex Hannaford

hen the sun starts to climb all 55 of the state’s mountains go down on the over 14,000ft, alone in winter. canyonlands of south- By the spring of 2003, Ralston still eastern Utah in the hadn’t quite completed the challenge. WAmerican west, it bathes the vast rock And now the snows were starting to formations and caverns in a deep red melt, he’d have to wait until the glow. It’s beautiful. following winter to pick up where he But at night, if you’re alone, it can be left off. ‘Those mountains contain a cold and frightening place. some of the deadliest snowpack in the Particularly if you find yourself trapped world,’ Ralston says. ‘And I don’t say in one of the deep ravines that split that for self-aggrandisement but just to the sandstone monoliths in two. It say that’s where I was at in my life would be difficult for anyone to hear when I walked into that Utah canyon you during the day – but in the dark, back in 2003.’ a cry for help would be met with only On Saturday, April 26, without telling silence. anyone his plans, Ralston packed his No one knows that more than 35- hiking boots, a hydration system, his year-old Aron Ralston. In 2003, he backpack, climbing equipment, and, had gone hiking, alone, near Robbers notably, a pocket-sized utility tool, put Roost – an old outlaw hideout used his mountain bike in the back of his in the dying days of the wild west by truck and drove almost five hours to Butch Cassidy. But while Ralston was a remote part of Utah. in an idyllic, tranquil pool hidden in chip away at the boulder with his climbing down a narrow slot in one of the canyons. utility knife – but it was already fairly Bluejohn Canyon, a boulder became According to retired National But it is after he leaves the girls to blunt and this just made it worse. That dislodged, crushing Ralston’s right Parks Service ranger Steve Swanke, continue his hike that disaster strikes. first night, as darkness descended on the forearm and pinning it against the wall. people call the tiny town of Moab the Ralston had left his bike and continued Utah canyonlands, Ralston realised just For five and a half days, he struggled ‘end of the world’. ‘Well, imagine on foot into Bluejohn Canyon. how alone he was. to get free until he was forced to do the going to the end of the world and According to online climbing ‘If you want someone to show up unthinkable. Using a blunt knife from then travelling for two and a half discussion forum summitpost.org, the and help you if something bad happens, his multi-tool, he began amputating his hours more. That takes you to the canyon requires technical rock and you’d better tell someone where you’re arm. This month Ralston’s incredible Horseshoe Canyon trailhead where canyoneering skills to negotiate. But going. And of course I wanted tale of survival comes to the big screen Aron Ralston began his journey. It’s Ralston was more than capable. someone to know – but I’d made a courtesy of film-maker Danny Boyle, in the middle of nowhere.’ ‘I was accustomed to being in far, far choice and it was a choice I was going in his new movie, 127 Hours. Ralston was only planning to go day riskier environments,’ he says. ‘So I to have to live with.’ Ralston was raised in the suburbs of hiking and maybe do some rappelling thought going into that canyon was a But living through this was going Indianapolis, Indiana, but moved with so he could explore the slot canyons. walk in the park – there were no to be far from easy. Ralston says the his parents to Denver, Colorado when He’d taken a gallon of water with him avalanches, it was a beautiful day and boulder was crushing his wrist so he was 11. He was a bright student and – plenty for such a short trip. He’d be I was essentially just walking.’ tightly that everything up to his after university he moved to Arizona to back in Aspen by nightfall. But suddenly, Ralston slipped and fell fingertips was numb. ‘It’s called work for Intel. But the lure of the great In Boyle’s characteristically slick and down the chasm, dislodging an 800lb compartment syndrome – when the

outdoors was too strong and he fast-paced film, we see Ralston, played (360kg) chockstone boulder, which is nerves and blood vessels are pinched, ORB I S OUT LI N E eventually left his job and moved to by James Franco, cycling through the much harder than sandstone. It crushed so that the tissue goes into necrosis and Aspen, in the Colorado Rockies. There breathtaking landscape of red sand and his arm and left Ralston pinned against dies,’ he explains. he would hike, ski and cycle. He also shadows. He meets up with two girls the canyon wall. He began stabbing the blade of his

set out to become the first person to out hiking and takes them swimming He made several futile attempts to knife into the dead skin of his thumb. Michael O’Neill/ C telegraph.co.uk seven

Cutting edge Forty- for the 12-minute flight to the hospital eight hours into his in Moab. When they got there he ordeal (left), Aron stunned them by walking into the Ralston takes a picture emergency room on his own. of the situation; being Since the accident, Ralston has been interviewed by Jay Leno; back to Bluejohn Canyon 10 times – and with his wife, with friends, news crews and with the Jessica Trusty producers of 127 Hours. They even shot some of the film there. Understandably, the road to recovery hasn’t been easy. At first, Ralston was determined to carry on challenging himself. Using a special prosthetic arm, he tried ultrarunning (ridiculously long running races) extreme mountaineering and whitewater rafting. And he was finally able to complete the challenge he’d set himself before his accident. But, Ralston claims, he began to adopt a sense of invincibility; that if the accident in Utah hadn’t killed him, Ralston managed to use his body nothing could. ‘I realised weight to violently bend his arm until ‘I had this huge grin somewhere along the way the boulder snapped his forearm. He on my face as I picked that I was just headed back to then ingeniously used the attachment up that knife to start that same spot in the canyon from his hydration pack – a bendy where my life was on the rubber hose that you use to suck water this horrific thing. It line,’ he says. out of the pack – as a makeshift was just a blessing to In 2006, Ralston lost three tourniquet, and began sawing and get out of there’ friends to suicide and he says cutting through the remaining cartilage, it was a wake-up call; he felt skin and tendons with his multitool. he’d been given a second If reading about it is making you feel point-and-shoot camera he had with chance. He wanted to put more time queasy you may find Boyle’s movie too him to take a picture of the rock and into the non-profit work he’d started, much to stomach. Each time Ralston’s his severed hand ‘as a kind of “screw taking disabled veterans climbing; character attempts to sever a nerve, you, I’m outta here”,’ he says. helping troubled youngsters; preserving Boyle uses a loud metallic sound to He then made a makeshift sling, and Colorado’s national forests and emphasise the excruciating pain he incredibly managed to rappel down a wilderness areas. But he also realised feels. It fills the cinema and you’re 60ft cliff face to the floor of the canyon. it was time to settle down. forced to look away. Ironically, this would have been the one ‘I’d fallen in love with a woman but But Ralston says Boyle has handled it and only technical aspect of his entire she broke up with me and I was perfectly. ‘Severing the nerve severed a trip. And Ralston managed it after devastated. Six months later, I went into direct line to my brain. The central amputating his arm and being deprived a suicidal depression from the break-up nervous system is right there. It’s of sleep for five days. Covered in blood, of the relationship, but I resolved to not graphic, but I think it’s appropriate,’ he he began marching out of the canyon. do what my friends had done. And so I says. ‘You couldn’t show any less of it A family out hiking found him and reached out for help,’ he says. ‘Then, in and still understand what I went called the emergency services. the early winter of 2007, I was at a pub Hisssssss. He could hear the air escaping though. Without having to belabour Captain Kyle Ekker of the Emery in Aspen watching a friend’s band play from the decomposing digit. it, the actual amputation lasted over an County Sheriff’s Department said and I met this woman, Jessica. She ‘I realised early on that I was going to hour. So I think three minutes on film Ralston’s family and friends had bought me a beer, we started talking have to cut my arm off to get free but is just right. It was actually very reported him missing the previous day. and the next day we went hiking.’ there was also resistance: I didn’t want euphoric for me and audiences have Although he hadn’t told them where They married in August, 2009 and to do it,’ he says. ‘But by the second day cheered and clapped. he was going, they were convinced he now live in Boulder, Colorado, with I was already figuring out how I could had gone hiking in that county. ‘We their young son, Leo. Ralston says his do it, so in the film you see that ‘In the film, Franco laughs started checking the southeast corner wife played a huge role in his healing. progression: trying to cut into the arm maniacally because he’s broken his of the county and we were just lucky ‘And that’s where I’m finally at today – like a saw, finding the tourniquet, then bone and that’s how it was. I had this that we came across his truck at the my life is about being with my family,’ the realisation that the knife was too huge grin on my face as I picked up trail head of Horseshoe Canyon.’ he says. ‘This is what’s important.’

om dull to get through the bone. That that knife to start this horrific thing. It Steve Swanke was at work early that At the end of the film, you see the despair was followed by a kind of was traumatic but it was a blessing to morning when he got a call saying a real Aron Ralston together with Jessica peace; a realisation that I was going to be able to get out of there.’ hiker was missing. ‘We sensed a great and Leo, sitting on a sofa, with the die there and there was nothing I could Ralston says the process of deal of urgency. We threw resources at canyon behind them. do. It was no longer up to me. All I amputating his arm meant he endured it real quickly. By 3pm that afternoon Ralston says it’s funny, but even could do was see it through to the end.’ both the extremes of pain and absolute we had him located, accessed, and in though he didn’t know them at the After five and a half days inside the elation, because, he says, he knew that the helicopter, down into the hospital time, they’re the reason he was able to canyon, out of water, delirious and he was closer than he ever had been and stabilised. I wasn’t surprised he get out of that canyon alive. ‘We have .c s h Ne ws ; A xelle/G o ff P otos hallucinating, Ralston had an epiphany. during his ordeal to being free. He survived – he had a strong body, a these very fundamental desires for ‘I felt my bone bend and I realised I describes the moment when he walked strong mind, he was in his element and freedom, for love and for connection.

; Spla ston could use the boulder to break it. It was out of the canyon as being reborn, he was technically savvy. He also had a And that’s what got me out.’ like fireworks going off – I was going ‘because I’d already accepted I was very strong will to live.’

Ral Aron to get out of there.’ going to die’. Ralston used the small Rescuers tried to keep Ralston awake ‘127 Hours’ is released on January 7