Aron Ralston Part 5 of 6 Desperate Days in Blue John Canyo — Transcript

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1. 0:00and that morning for the first time a
2. 0:02thora tease had a solid lead Erin's
3. 0:04credit card had been traced to a grocery
4. 0:06store in Moab Utah authorities whom bin
5. 0:09on the parklands in the southeastern
6. 0:11part of the state we had a direction of
7. 0:14travel and the search crews began to
8. 0:17look for the vehicle it was a question
9. 0:19of time and the speed with which we
10. 0:22could get there
11. 0:23exhausted and overcome with emotion
12. 0:25Donna sank down on the stairs and began
13. 0:28to pray God keep him safe
14. 0:32you know we're coming he just doesn't
15. 0:34know it but we're coming hold on here
16. 0:36and hold on we'll be there we're coming
17. 0:38over and over in a room somewhere in a
18. 0:41canyon in Utah at that hour and was
19. 0:47preparing to save himself
20. 0:48there was a real arc between your fur
21. 0:53and what he was doing
22. 0:55he claims that that he felt the surgeons
23. 1:00of all the prayers by this time
24. 1:04in the canyon Ralston was once again
25. 1:06idly chipping away at the rock when his
26. 1:09knife washed the tip of his thumb it
27. 1:12ripped part of the skin off of my thumb
28. 1:15kind of like away an old blister will
29. 1:17rip away and so I that made me curious
30. 1:21and I started prodding around and I
31. 1:23stuck the knife down in and at my thumb
32. 1:27at that spot and it slid in like I was
33. 1:29just like I was sliding it into a pad of
34. 1:32warm butter and it went in I couldn't
35. 1:36feel it of course but it went in about a
36. 1:38half inch and then this this hissing
37. 1:43sound of gasp the the decomposition gas
38. 1:47is releasing from inside my arm my hand
39. 1:50where they've been building up as my arm
40. 1:51was my hand was decomposing over those
41. 1:54five days and that threw me into a panic
42. 1:57it scared me I was it appalled me it was
43. 2:02just it was a gruesome concept that my
44. 2:04hand was decaying while still attached
45. 2:07to my body
46. 2:08and I started yanking my hand my arm
47. 2:10giving it everything that I had and was
48. 2:14twisting myself around and trying to
49. 2:16slide my arm up and down like this and
50. 2:18then in an instant
51. 2:19Ralston realized what he had to do to
52. 2:22save his life it came to me this this
53. 2:24epiphany that I could break but I could
54. 2:26break the bones to him because my arm
55. 2:28was caught so tightly that I could
56. 2:30torque myself torque a basic principle
57. 2:34to a former engineer like Ralston
58. 2:36remember he had made an initial attempt
59. 2:39to amputate his arm
60. 2:40two days before only to realize there
61. 2:42was no way his pocketknife could slice
62. 2:44through the bones but if he could break
63. 2:47them maybe he'd have a chance he would
64. 2:50have to snap both of the bones in his
65. 2:51arm to make it work and so I slammed my
66. 2:55body against the opposite wall I grabbed
67. 2:58the backside of the boulder and even got
68. 3:01my feet up to where I was standing
69. 3:03halfway up the wall and grabbing the
70. 3:06back side of the rock and clumping my
71. 3:09body over it and so finally that bottom
72. 3:11bone snapped
73. 3:14and this powe sound what kind of echoing
74. 3:20through the canyon and I don't even know
75. 3:26if I started feeling excited at that
76. 3:29point but I just knew the next thing
77. 3:31that I had to do was I had to break the
78. 3:33other bone and so I I grabbed the bottom
79. 3:35side of the rock and and pushed and
80. 3:38tried to sink myself down until I was
81. 3:41pushing up to create the downward
82. 3:45leverage on the top bone until it - made
83. 3:49the same noise POW and and snapped in
84. 3:53the same spot thankfully right right
85. 3:56where my wrist was caught they both
86. 3:59broke right along here just just behind
87. 4:02their bones in my wrist but now you've
88. 4:05got to cut off the arm yeah and I said
89. 4:08to myself here we go and you're in it
90. 4:11now and I took my knife it's blades were
91. 4:14now bent and dull from days of stabbing
92. 4:16at the rock hey first they still had the
93. 4:18larger blade out and I held it up
94. 4:21against my arm and I started pushing
95. 4:22into it and I I couldn't get the knife
96. 4:25to sink in and so I switched over and I
97. 4:27pulled out the smaller blade and with
98. 4:30the smaller blade then I actually
99. 4:31started the amputation the smaller one
100. 4:34was still a little more sharp the
101. 4:36smaller blade was just two inches long
102. 4:39I dove into this exercise this this
103. 4:42surgery surgical procedure and started
104. 4:45cutting away he cuts through the top
105. 4:48layer of skin and muscle until he saw an
106. 4:50artery only then did he realize he'd
107. 4:53forgotten to apply the tourniquet he had
108. 4:55fashion days earlier from the insulated
109. 4:57lining of his water bottle I prepped the
110. 4:59tourniquet on and I was bleeding down
111. 5:02the wall and then I severed the artery
112. 5:05he cuts through more muscle through the
113. 5:07other and two more arteries then tended
114. 5:10the most difficult layer his dull knife
115. 5:12was unable to cut through through it so
116. 5:15I ended up taking the pliers side of the
117. 5:16knife and using that to grab and twist
118. 5:21and rip until the tendon gave way it was
119. 5:26slow
120. 5:27painful excruciating work he hacked away
121. 5:30at his arm for nearly an hour layer by
122. 5:32layer until he saw what he knew would
123. 5:35cause the most intense pain yet and then
124. 5:38I was looking at the the nerve this
125. 5:40little strand of spaghetti running
126. 5:44through running through my arm and I had
127. 5:48to take the knife and pry it up and you
128. 5:51know were just when I touched it it felt
129. 5:53like the fire
130. 5:55sticking my arm into a just pot of
131. 6:02liquid metal and it it burned all the
132. 6:05way up up my arm and and I took it again
133. 6:08and and lifted it up I knew it was going
134. 6:10to hurt and I plucked it up and did him
135. 6:14in a motion like that and that that's
136. 6:17fire sensation redoubled and went all
137. 6:20the way up to my shoulder but I knew
138. 6:24that was the hard part it was only a few
139. 6:27more moments of work after that and then
140. 6:29BOOM and I wasn't even attached anymore
141. 6:32and I fell down like this and I I was
142. 6:39free
143. 6:50you were reborn it was this that
144. 6:57happiest muffin my wife and it's it's
145. 7:01funny to think about it being there done
146. 7:04will never be a more powerful experience
147. 7:05for me it was absolutely the greatest
148. 7:11feeling to be to be given the chance to
149. 7:14get out of here looking down Canyon I
150. 7:18knew I had a I had a half a trip left
151. 7:23at least I am i I was not going to die
152. 7:27right here and the power of that was
153. 7:35astonishing the crude amputation of his
154. 7:42right arm had taken an hour
155. 7:44I never whimpered I never made a noise I
156. 7:47never yelled I didn't I didn't and whine
157. 7:52about what I was doing and I didn't
158. 7:54black out just I did what I needed to do
159. 7:58right here
160. 8:01and I'd stop myself to take a few deep
161. 8:05breaths and then I stood back up on the
162. 8:08rocks and I took my pack and I took the
163. 8:11gear that I knew that I was gonna need
164. 8:12and I just started off now he still
165. 8:16faced a daunting challenge of escaping
166. 8:18the canyon itself he wasn't far from the
167. 8:21entrance but with his amputated arm
168. 8:23still bleeding in a makeshift sling he'd
169. 8:26never be able to scale the 15-foot wall
170. 8:28he had descended he'd have to continue
171. 8:31ahead taking a longer and possibly more
172. 8:34treacherous route out it was uncharted
173. 8:37terrain he knew only that he faced a
174. 8:39cliff and a 65-foot rappel at the end
175. 8:41could he handle all that in his
176. 8:44condition as Ralston prepared to make
177. 8:50his final push to escape Blue John
178. 8:52Canyon he had no way of knowing that
179. 8:55others were on the move trying to find
180. 8:56him earlier that morning park ranger
181. 9:00steve swanky with the National Park
182. 9:02Service and Moab Utah had gotten a call
183. 9:04about a missing hiker with a description
184. 9:06of his truck we said yes we know exactly
185. 9:09where that vehicle is that the vehicle
186. 9:12is at the Horseshoe Canyon Trail and the
187. 9:14vehicles been there for five days it had
188. 9:17not raised suspicions visitors to
189. 9:19Canyonlands often camp out for days at a
190. 9:21time but now it seemed ominous swanky
191. 9:24called the sheriff's office to authorize
192. 9:26a search and rescue and began to put a
193. 9:28command system into place
194. 9:30swanky also called in a helicopter to
195. 9:33speed up the search meanwhile Ralston
196. 9:37his arm and a makeshift tourniquet and
197. 9:39sling was struggling ahead through the
198. 9:42depths of Blue John Canyon yep normal
199. 9:45bleeding I was negotiating all of this
200. 9:48with with my arm strapped to my chest I
201. 9:51remember in this section I I leaned my
202. 9:53back against the wall and just kind of
203. 9:55slid down into this little we call these
204. 9:59the toilet bowls okay I'm gonna let you
205. 10:01lead me out here okay
206. 10:07this is this is tight good enough get
207. 10:12through with all your limbs yeah working
208. 10:17under the best of circumstances
209. 10:19it's an extraordinary challenge the
210. 10:22passages are often exceptionally narrow
211. 10:24there are sudden drop-offs pools of
212. 10:26water turn up in unexpected places with
213. 10:29no way to tell how deep okay
214. 10:31the canyon tunnels so far down there is
215. 10:34often barely enough light to see and now
216. 10:36we get to one of every Canyon is
217. 10:38favorite obstacles the water hazard the
218. 10:51idea that someone has done this
219. 10:52having just amputated design having not
220. 10:57eaten five days having out had water for
221. 11:00three looking back now Ralston also
222. 11:09can't believe that he was able to make
223. 11:11it out
224. 11:13when I turned the corner here I knew
225. 11:15that I was I was getting to us a place
226. 11:18where it opened up finally literally
227. 11:21extra light at the end of the tunnel
228. 11:23obvious and then I walked out and under
229. 11:25the ledge and bam there I was it's a
230. 11:29dramatic the dramatic entrance into the
231. 11:32rest of the canyon and it was a dramatic
232. 11:34entrance for the I mean allegorically
233. 11:37speaking for the rest of my life that is
234. 11:39stepping out here so painful it was
235. 11:44stunning but now after all that he'd
236. 11:47endured he was still standing on the
237. 11:49edge of a six-story high cliff and down
238. 11:52was the only way out somehow he would
239. 11:55have to rappel out with only one arm yet
240. 11:58another seemingly impossible challenge
241. 12:01I swooned I felt faint and I almost fell
242. 12:04over and pitched headfirst over the
243. 12:06cliff and I lost my balance and and
244. 12:09stepped back but Aron Ralston didn't
245. 12:12give up he clipped his climbing harness
246. 12:14to the rock so he wouldn't fall and set
247. 12:17to work
248. 12:18rigging an anchor and a rappel for the
249. 12:21treacherous descent hey you up to doing
250. 12:23it again yeah
251. 12:34even with the benefit of this prosthesis
252. 12:36it is still a formidable challenge once
253. 12:51again Ralston is intent on making this
254. 12:54repeal without the help of our guides
255. 12:57and yeah that's okay that might not be
256. 13:04graceful graceful
257. 13:11if he slips or loses control he could
258. 13:15plunge to the canyon floor
259. 13:16it's the final obstacle today before he
260. 13:19conquers Blue John Canyon again it is an
261. 13:24unnerving rappel even for an experienced
262. 13:27climber the lip of the cliff juts out
263. 13:29you have to ease off an overhang
264. 13:32trusting that you'll find a football to
265. 13:34push off the jagged rock
266. 13:47that's always the hard part
267. 13:51even today it rattles him
268. 14:19as I repel Auto Blue John Canyon I'm
269. 14:22amazed that he was able to do it all
270. 14:24that day the fact that Aaron Wilson was
271. 14:31able to overcome so many obstacles
272. 14:33missing one arm in a precarious state of
273. 14:37health it's astonishing