Why Did He Have to CUT OFF His Own Arm to Survive?

On Saturday, April 26, 2003, 27-year-old climber Aron Ralston was alone in Blue John Canyon, a remote slot canyon in southeastern Utah, when a boulder of roughly 800 pounds shifted and pinned his right arm against the canyon wall. He had told no one where he was going. For five days and seven hours he tried everything: chipping the rock, rigging pulleys, rationing his water. On day six he freed himself, rappelled down a 65-foot drop, and walked out until a search helicopter found him. We follow five traces of the story and mark every claim: DOCUMENTED (police, rescuers, Deseret News, CNN, Outside), ARON'S ACCOUNT (his press conference, book and interviews) and GUESS. The hardest moment is described calmly and without graphic detail. No images from the film "127 Hours" are used; photos of other slot canyons are marked as illustrative. Always tell someone where you are going and when you will be back. Chapters: 0:00 Intro: a helicopter over the desert 1:32 Trace 1: A man who went alone 4:12 Trace 2: The stone 6:22 Trace 3: Five days in the rock 9:24 Trace 4: The decision 11:45 Trace 5: What came after 13:23 The lessons Main sources: Deseret News (May 2 and 6, 2003); Aspen Daily News; Outside magazine (August 2003); CNN transcripts (May 5 and 8, 2003); Dateline NBC, "Desperate days in Blue John Canyon"; The Spokesman-Review (November 21, 2010); National Park Service, Horseshoe Canyon; WildSnow (2005); KSL (2011); Aron Ralston, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (2004). Photos and imagery (Wikimedia Commons, NPS, BLM, USGS): Public domain: BLMUtah; Bull-Doser; CanyonlandsNPS; Denali National Park and Preserve; National Park Service Digital Image Archives; Nikater; NPS; USFWS Mountain-Prairie; Zion National Park CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.... Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA; Fabio Achilli from Milano, Italy; Jason Hollinger; John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA; Kylie Stewart; lamblukas; Paxson Woelber; Robert Tadlock from Westminster; Thatcher Clay CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.... Bobak Ha'Eri; Xpda CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.... Jeffrey Beall CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa... formulanone; Greg Willis from Denver, CO, usa; inkknife_2000; Jeremiah LaRocco; Jim Morefield from Nevada, USA; Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA; Murray Foubister; Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa... Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa... Aron Ralston; Brian MacIntosh; cotycreighton; Michael Grindstaff; MostlyDeserts; The Dye Clan; Uploaded to the English language Wikipedia by user Toytoy; Wolfgang Moroder CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa... Clément Proust; Justusco; Nicolas Richoffer; Rhododendrites CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/z... Greg Rakozy grakozy; Surfsupusa at en.wikipedia Satellite imagery: U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map (public domain). Photos marked "illustrative" show other slot canyons, vehicles or equipment, not the actual ones. Music: "Dark Walk" and "Long Note Three" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Narration: synthetic voice. #Survival #AronRalston #127Hours