Aron Ralston: He Cut Off His Arm To Live! (Real NOW) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Imagine a choice so stark, so utterly
2. 0:03brutal, it shreds the very fabric of
3. 0:06what you believe is possible. Die
4. 0:08slowly, a forgotten footnote crushed by
5. 0:11indifferent stone in the silent
6. 0:12wilderness, or commit an act of almost
7. 0:15unimaginable self-surgery with a
8. 0:17laughably inadequate tool to seize a
9. 0:19sliver, just a sliver of a chance at
10. 0:22life. What if your only escape route
11. 0:24involved your own flesh, your own bone,
12. 0:26a will of pure, unadulterated iron
13. 0:29forged in the furnace of absolute
14. 0:31desperation, and a cheap multi-tool not
15. 0:33even sharp enough to properly cut a
16. 0:35sandwich? This isn't the plot of a
17. 0:37grindhouse horror flick. This was the
18. 0:39chilling, agonizing reality Aaron Rston
19. 0:42stared down in a Utah canyon. You think
20. 0:44you know stories of survival? Prepare to
21. 0:47have your definition of human endurance
22. 0:49fundamentally irrevocably shattered.
23. 0:51Aaron Rston wasn't your average weekend
24. 0:53warrior. This was a seasoned
25. 0:55outdoorsman, an adrenaline junkie with a
26. 0:58PhD in calculated risk. A man who sought
27. 1:01solace and challenge in the stark,
28. 1:04beautiful, and utterly unforgiving
29. 1:06landscapes of the American West. In
30. 1:08April 2003, he ventured into Blue John
31. 1:11Canyon, a remote slot canyon in Utah, a
32. 1:14labyrinth of narrow passages carved by
33. 1:16ancient waters. Crucially, like many
34. 1:19solo adventurers chasing that pure,
35. 1:21untethered experience, he told no one
36. 1:24his specific plans. A small oversight
37. 1:26with monumental lifealtering
38. 1:28consequences. He was competent,
39. 1:30confident, equipped with climbing gear,
40. 1:32a small backpack containing two
41. 1:34burritos, about a liter of water, a
42. 1:37video camera to document his exploits,
43. 1:39and that infamous multi-tool. Just
44. 1:42another day conquering the wilderness,
45. 1:43or so he thought. The descent into Blue
46. 1:46John was initially routine. He navigated
47. 1:48tight squeezes chimney down narrow
48. 1:51drops. Then it happened. As he was
49. 1:54climbing down a section, a chalkstone
50. 1:56boulder estimated at 800 lb, roughly the
51. 1:59weight of a grand piano dislodged. In a
52. 2:03horrifying lightningast instant, the
53. 2:05world tilted. Rock scraped rock. Dust
54. 2:07filled the air. And then an ungodly
55. 2:09pressure. The boulder had pinned his
56. 2:11right arm, crushing it against the
57. 2:13unyielding sandstone canyon wall. One
58. 2:16moment, a free man exploring the wild.
59. 2:18The next, a prisoner of primordial
60. 2:20stone, his body an unwilling anchor. The
61. 2:23shock, the searing pain, the immediate
62. 2:25sickening realization of his
63. 2:26predicament. trapped. His initial
64. 2:28efforts were frantic, pushing, pulling,
65. 2:31heaving against the colossal weight. He
66. 2:33tried to chip away at the boulder with
67. 2:35his multi-tool, a feudal gesture against
68. 2:37an enemy of such magnitude. The canyon,
69. 2:40his playground, had become his potential
70. 2:42tomb. Days one and two blurred into a
71. 2:45grim cycle of hope and despair. He
72. 2:47meticulously inventoried his meager
73. 2:49supplies. The water, a lifeline, was
74. 2:51terrifyingly finite. The burritos, a
75. 2:54mockery of sustenance. He set up his
76. 2:56video camera, a silent confidant,
77. 2:58recording messages to his family, a
78. 3:01testament if the worst came to pass. He
79. 3:03still clung to a sliver of hope, perhaps
80. 3:05another hiker, a ranger. But Blue John
81. 3:08Canyon was remote, infrequently visited.
82. 3:11The vast silence of the desert was
83. 3:13broken only by his own efforts and the
84. 3:15wind whispering through the canyon
85. 3:17slots, a mournful, indifferent sound.
86. 3:20The physical pain was immense, a
87. 3:23constant throbbing agony from his
88. 3:25crushed hand and forearm. But the
89. 3:27psychological torment was perhaps even
90. 3:29greater. The crushing isolation, the
91. 3:31gnawing fear, the slow, relentless tick-
92. 3:34tock of dwindling time. By day three,
93. 3:37dehydration began its insidious work.
94. 3:40His water was nearly gone. His throat
95. 3:42was parched, his lips cracked. The
96. 3:44desert sun, normally a source of life,
97. 3:46beat down on the canyon rim, a taunting
98. 3:49reminder of the world beyond his stone
99. 3:51prison. Hope of external rescue,
100. 3:53dwindled to a pinpoint. He continued to
101. 3:56work on the boulder, but it was like
102. 3:57trying to move a mountain with a
103. 3:59teaspoon. The grim reality began to
104. 4:01solidify in his mind. No one was coming.
105. 4:04He was entirely terrifyingly on his own.
106. 4:07It was during this period fueled by
107. 4:09desperation and the primal urge to
108. 4:11survive that the unthinkable ghastly
109. 4:14idea began to germinate. Amputation. The
110. 4:18thought itself was a horror. But the
111. 4:20alternative, a slow, agonizing death
112. 4:23from dehydration, exposure, or
113. 4:25infection, was even more terrifying. Day
114. 4:28four saw his physical and mental state
115. 4:30deteriorate further. He was now out of
116. 4:32water. His urine was brown.
117. 4:35Hallucinations flickered at the edges of
118. 4:37his consciousness, visions of ice cold
119. 4:39water, of escape. He made his first
120. 4:42desperate attempts to free his arm
121. 4:44through a more direct, brutal approach,
122. 4:47trying to use the leverage of the
123. 4:49boulder to snap the bones in his trapped
124. 4:51arm. The pain was beyond description,
125. 4:53but the bones stubbornly refused to
126. 4:55break cleanly. He was weak, fading, but
127. 4:58a core of defiance, a refusal to simply
128. 5:01surrender, still burned within him. He
129. 5:03knew time was running out. Each passing
130. 5:05hour was a nail in his coffin unless he
131. 5:08did something truly radical. Day five.
132. 5:11127 hours trapped. This was it. Do or
133. 5:14die. A moment of chilling clarity. A
134. 5:17Eureka moment born of extreme duress
135. 5:21struck him. He had to snap the bones
136. 5:23first to have any chance of cutting
137. 5:25through the softer tissues with his
138. 5:27pathetically dull multi-tool. He
139. 5:29gathered what remained of his strength,
140. 5:31his resolve hardening into something
141. 5:33beyond human. He positioned his arm,
142. 5:35took a deep breath, and then, with a
143. 5:38surge of adrenaline and a horrifying,
144. 5:40deliberate motion, he used his body
145. 5:42weight and the boulder's leverage to
146. 5:44snap his radius. A sickening crunch
147. 5:46echoed in the narrow canyon. Then he did
148. 5:49the same to his ulna. The pain was a
149. 5:51white hot explosion, a universe of
150. 5:53agony, but it was a necessary torment.
151. 5:56He fashioned a crude tourniquet from a
152. 5:58camelback tube to staunch the bleeding
153. 6:00as best he could. Then he opened the
154. 6:022-in blade of his multi-tool. He later
155. 6:05described it as something you'd use to
156. 6:06spread butter on a sandwich. He began to
157. 6:09cut methodically, almost robotically, he
158. 6:11sawed through skin, muscle, and
159. 6:13connective tissue. The dullness of the
160. 6:15blade made the process excruciatingly
161. 6:18slow, tearing rather than slicing. He
162. 6:20had to probe to identify tendons and
163. 6:22sever them one by one. He described
164. 6:25using the pliers on the multi-tool to
165. 6:27rip through tougher ligaments. It was a
166. 6:29gruesome, protracted act of self-
167. 6:31butchery performed with a surgeon's
168. 6:33desperate focus fueled by an indomitable
169. 6:36will to live. The final agonizing hurdle
170. 6:40was a thick nerve which he had to sever
171. 6:42with a final convulsive effort. And
172. 6:45then, after an hour of this hellish
173. 6:46labor, his arm was free. Or rather, he
174. 6:49was free of his arm. But the ordeal was
175. 6:51far from over. He was severely weakened,
176. 6:54in shock, dehydrated, having lost nearly
177. 6:5625% of his blood volume, and now missing
178. 6:59his right forearm. Yet the will that had
179. 7:02driven him to amputate his own limb now
180. 7:04propelled him forward. He had to repel
181. 7:07down a 65 ft sheer cliff face with one
182. 7:09arm. He managed it. Then he began the
183. 7:12grueling hike out of the canyon system,
184. 7:15seven torturous miles under the Utah
185. 7:17sun. He was a man running on fumes on
186. 7:20sheer raw determination. Miraculously,
187. 7:23after hours of stumbling through the
188. 7:25desert, he encountered a Dutch family on
189. 7:27a hike. They gave him water, Oreos, and
190. 7:29alerted the authorities. A helicopter
191. 7:32soon arrived, plucking him from the jaws
192. 7:34of death. Aaron Rston's recovery was
193. 7:36arduous. His story, almost unbelievable
194. 7:39in its extremity, captivated the world.
195. 7:41It was later immortalized in his book,
196. 7:44Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and the
197. 7:46acclaimed film 127 Hours. He became a
198. 7:51symbol of human endurance, a testament
199. 7:53to the ferocious power of the will to
200. 7:55survive. What drove him through those
201. 7:58127 hours of torment and that final
202. 8:00unthinkable act? Was it the primal
203. 8:02instinct hardwired into our DNA? Visions
204. 8:05he reported having of a future son, a
205. 8:08life yet to be lived? Whatever the
206. 8:10ultimate source, Aaron Rston's harrowing
207. 8:12journey is an astonishing, almost
208. 8:15terrifying exploration of the absolute
209. 8:17limits of human fortitude. A stark
210. 8:20reminder that when faced with certain
211. 8:22death, the choice to live, no matter how
212. 8:24horrifically costly, can unleash a power
213. 8:27within us that we never knew existed.