Aron Ralston Interview — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00When I think about the the week of
2. 0:03April 26th to May 1st, 2003, there was
3. 0:06what came before and there's what came
4. 0:09after. It was such a watershed for me
5. 0:11that it it literally cleaved not only my
6. 0:14arm, but my life into these kind of
7. 0:16before and after,
8. 0:18this pre and post Blue John.
9. 0:20Is that I walked into that canyon
10. 0:23not only with two hands, but but just as
11. 0:26an adventurer out on a day trip for kind
12. 0:29of a vacation of sorts. And midway
13. 0:33through this hike that was pretty
14. 0:34low-key for the kinds of things that I
15. 0:36was doing at that time in my life,
16. 0:38I got to a drop-off in this slot canyon
17. 0:41in the middle of a very remote desert in
18. 0:43southern Utah and I dislodged a boulder.
19. 0:47I pulled it down as I was descending
20. 0:49this drop-off.
21. 0:51The boulder fell for my head as I was
22. 0:53now underneath it and as I put my hands
23. 0:56up to try to
24. 0:57block it from crashing into my skull,
25. 1:00that my hands one got smashed and then
26. 1:03as the boulder ricocheted, my right hand
27. 1:06became trapped by this rock as it it
28. 1:08slammed into a new spot between these
29. 1:11very narrow walls. So this like bus tire
30. 1:14sized boulder now was trapping me in a
31. 1:1850-ft deep slot canyon 5 mi from the
32. 1:20nearest dirt road and hours from
33. 1:24a phone or pavement or running water or
34. 1:27help. I was by myself. I hadn't told
35. 1:29anyone where I was going, didn't leave
36. 1:32any kind of an itinerary and so it was
37. 1:35it was just me stuck and trapped
38. 1:38basically standing in my grave.
39. 1:41And without being able to get free, I
40. 1:43was definitely going to die there.
41. 1:46Via via one or the other kind of
42. 1:48mechanisms, either infection or
43. 1:50dehydration or starvation.
44. 1:54Perhaps a flash flood
45. 1:56or or just
46. 1:58by succumbing to hypothermia during the
47. 2:00very cold nights.
48. 2:02I suffered through all these various
49. 2:05bodily and mental degradations over
50. 2:09not just one day and one night, but two
51. 2:12days, two nights, three days and three
52. 2:13nights, four days, four nights, five
53. 2:16days and the fifth night, I knew that at
54. 2:18this point I mean I I tried everything
55. 2:20there is to to try, including trying to
56. 2:22cut my arm off to get myself free.
57. 2:25And being there,
58. 2:27that I
59. 2:29I
60. 2:30I etched my name and
61. 2:32my birth month and my what I thought was
62. 2:35my death month in the wall of the canyon
63. 2:37above my shoulder. I I used this
64. 2:39handheld video camera,
65. 2:41sat it on the rock in front of me
66. 2:43strapping my hand and recorded my will
67. 2:45and testament. I mean my goodbyes to my
68. 2:47family, my loved ones. And I I was
69. 2:52resigned perhaps or or at peace with
70. 2:54maybe another way to say it, the fact
71. 2:56that I was going to die here. There was
72. 2:57no more life in front of me and I
73. 3:00I found a lot of
74. 3:03regrets in my life too, but also I came
75. 3:06to to I think a an understanding with
76. 3:08myself about it to to let some of those
77. 3:11regrets um
78. 3:13uh just let them be.
79. 3:15But as it turned out, it was not the
80. 3:17end. I had a vision during that last
81. 3:20night, that fifth night that I was
82. 3:22there, of a little boy that I saw myself
83. 3:24at some point in the future with with a
84. 3:26handless right arm playing with this
85. 3:28little blond-haired 3-year-old and
86. 3:31lifting him up and
87. 3:32holding him on on my hip and and the eye
88. 3:36contact that I had with him told me that
89. 3:37this was my future son.
90. 3:39And if I was to have a future son, then
91. 3:41that meant I was going to have a future.
92. 3:42I was going to get out of this place.
93. 3:44A few hours later, the sun came up yet
94. 3:47again on my sixth day in the canyon, Uh,
95. 3:50but this time with this renewed hope
96. 3:52that I would get out of there,
97. 3:54I I actually fell into a rage of sorts.
98. 3:57I lost control of what had previously
99. 3:59been a very controlled experience for
100. 4:02me. And in this rage, I felt my bones
101. 4:05bend. And as they bent, I realized that
102. 4:07I might actually be able to break the
103. 4:09bones. And if I could break them, I
104. 4:11might be able to then use the knife,
105. 4:12which was too dull to cut through the
106. 4:14bones,
107. 4:15but to use that just on the soft
108. 4:17tissues.
109. 4:18And the smile came over me. I I was
110. 4:21euphoric as I went about first breaking
111. 4:24one bone and then contorting my body to
112. 4:26break the second bone and then using the
113. 4:28knife to cut through the various
114. 4:30tissues, including the nerve,
115. 4:32which was a thousand times worse than
116. 4:34having that boulder crushing my hand.
117. 4:36But even as I got through that most
118. 4:38intense pain, I knew that I was going to
119. 4:41get out of there.
120. 4:42I'm going to die at some point, but I'm
121. 4:44not going to die here. I'm
122. 4:46I'm going to get out of this place. And
123. 4:49sure enough, after about an hour and 5
124. 4:51minutes of of working through the
125. 4:52amputation,
126. 4:54I
127. 4:55I was free.
128. 4:56It was
129. 4:58the most euphoric
130. 5:00ecstasy that I'll probably ever feel in
131. 5:02my life. And I gathered myself after a
132. 5:06a few deep breaths
133. 5:09and picked up my rope, picked up my
134. 5:10climbing gear, picked up
135. 5:13my water bottle that now was full of
136. 5:14urine. I took a last photograph of this
137. 5:19It was a good riddance photograph
138. 5:21of the hand that nearly trapped that
139. 5:23nearly killed me and the boulder. And
140. 5:24and I started hiking down the canyon. I
141. 5:28I made it through a few hundred yards of
142. 5:31like third and fourth class canyon
143. 5:34until I got to a a rappel that I I set
144. 5:36up and repelled the 60-ft drop. And I
145. 5:39got to a pool of water. I drank from
146. 5:41that for about 15 minutes and then
147. 5:44started hiking.
148. 5:46I walked for almost 7 miles then
149. 5:49slowly losing energy as the adrenaline
150. 5:52and and just the the effects of all of
151. 5:55this sleep deprivation and everything
152. 5:57else that had been mounting on me.
153. 6:00And
154. 6:02at the end of
155. 6:04of this hike
156. 6:05I was
157. 6:07just
158. 6:08a mile away from my truck where I had to
159. 6:10leave the canyon bottom.
160. 6:12About 800 vertical feet of climbing and
161. 6:15at this moment now
162. 6:17a helicopter came out of the sky that
163. 6:19had been searching for me and plucked me
164. 6:21out of the canyon and
165. 6:23off we we fly to the hospital.
166. 6:26The it was such a a remarkable
167. 6:29synchronicity of of me getting myself
168. 6:31free and out into the open where then I
169. 6:33could be found
170. 6:34and that helicopter being there within
171. 6:37minutes of when I would have otherwise
172. 6:38bled to death.
173. 6:40That it was
174. 6:42to me still an astonishing miracle that
175. 6:44that
176. 6:45I did what I did but actually that I
177. 6:47survived the effect of it and got to
178. 6:50medical attention.
179. 6:52Putting my life back together after that
180. 6:53again is this before and after
181. 6:57everything that had happened leading me
182. 6:59up to that that place and then where I
183. 7:01would go after that. It still stands
184. 7:04even now with
185. 7:06being married
186. 7:08and having
187. 7:09a little 6-month-old boy Leo
188. 7:12that
189. 7:13the experience back in Blue John is is
190. 7:16still
191. 7:17the defining moment in my life
192. 7:20of what came before and what came after.