DATELINE's 2012 20th Anniversary Show: Update on the inspiring Aron Ralston — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:00two one and two we've brought you so
3. 0:04many incredible stories of survival on
4. 0:06date line one we're very proud of that
5. 0:09we won an em4 that US Airways jet that
6. 0:12pulled off a perfect Landing in the
7. 0:14Hudson River but probably the most
8. 0:16personal Survival Story was about hiker
9. 0:19Aaron Rolston whose will to live was put
10. 0:21to an unthinkable test in a canyon in
11. 0:24Utah tonight Tom broka sits down with
12. 0:27Aaron again and finds an adventurer who
13. 0:29still loves a challenge but he's deeply
14. 0:34changed the story of Aaron ralson never
15. 0:37gets old we all have the same question
16. 0:41what would I do to escape what seems to
17. 0:42be certain death would I have the will
18. 0:45and strength to
19. 0:46Prevail so here we are with Canyon in
20. 0:502004 Aaron Roston took us with him to
21. 0:53Blue John Canyon in Utah's Canyon lands
22. 0:56national park it was 6 months to the day
23. 0:59since the 26-year-old Mountaineer and
24. 1:01climber had been trapped at the bottom
25. 1:03of a Slot Canyon Roston was pinned to
26. 1:06the wall by a giant boulder he had a
27. 1:08video camera with him my name is Aon
28. 1:13Rolston my parents are Don and Larry
29. 1:15rollston of Anglewood Colorado whoever
30. 1:18finds this please make an attempt to get
31. 1:21it to them are we getting close we're
32. 1:24definitely getting close we were back
33. 1:27where he had nearly died
34. 1:29[Music]
35. 1:32standing here a few moments ago I
36. 1:34started to go a little Tey over just
37. 1:38seeing I seeing where it was and
38. 1:41how pathetic it was um just such a
39. 1:46pitiable
40. 1:47situation and I can see the stains on
41. 1:50the wall and and I know what those
42. 1:52stains are from and then I left those
43. 1:54there I did that and this is emotional
44. 1:57for me I can't imagine what it's like
45. 1:59for you
46. 2:00there it
47. 2:09is Aaron told us about his sleep
48. 2:12deprivation that induced hallucinations
49. 2:14including one that gave him hope in the
50. 2:17abyss of his despair I had the vision of
51. 2:20this little three-year-old boy with
52. 2:21blonde hair and red shirt running across
53. 2:23the floor of the living room into my
54. 2:25arms and picking him up and realizing it
55. 2:27was my son and that this was a vision of
56. 2:30something in my future that glimpse of
57. 2:32what might be helped him to do what he
58. 2:35had to do it came to me this this
59. 2:37Epiphany that I could break that I could
60. 2:39break the bones because my arm explained
61. 2:41how he first broke the bones in his arm
62. 2:44and then cut his arm off with a cheap
63. 2:46knife boom and I wasn't even attached
64. 2:49anymore and I fell down like this and I
65. 2:51I
66. 2:55I I was free you were reborn I knew I
67. 2:59had had I had a hell of a trip left but
68. 3:03at least I I I was not going to die
69. 3:08right
70. 3:09here this is tight huh we retraced his
71. 3:13Escape Route From the Canyon including
72. 3:15where he had to repel down a six-story
73. 3:17cliff a on we can put a rope on you yeah
74. 3:20that's
75. 3:21okay there we go that's always the hard
76. 3:27part okay as I repelled out of blue John
77. 3:31Canyon I was astonished that he had been
78. 3:34able to do it all dehydrated hungry only
79. 3:38one arm Ralston was rescued by a
80. 3:41helicopter sent up after an alert from
81. 3:43his mother it was the beginning of a
82. 3:46long road back there would be five
83. 3:48surgeries a life-threatening bone
84. 3:50infection and a period of deep
85. 3:52depression ralson wrote a book between a
86. 3:55rock and a hard place the Oscar
87. 3:57nominated movie 127 hours was based on
88. 4:00it all right just more Aaron married in
89. 4:042009 by then he was back skiing and
90. 4:06mountain climbing today when he's not
91. 4:09Outdoors Ralston travels the country
92. 4:12giving motivational speeches I left
93. 4:14something behind in that Canyon but I
94. 4:16didn't lose anything is there ever a day
95. 4:18that goes by that you don't flash back
96. 4:20in some form oh I mean it's the evidence
97. 4:23is always there it's still not the most
98. 4:25natural thing for me to use my left hand
99. 4:27if you saw me try to throw a frisbee
100. 4:29probably couldn't hit the
101. 4:31water I am constantly coping and
102. 4:34adapting he loves the tundra like what
103. 4:36rson really wanted to talk about when I
104. 4:39caught up with him last week was his
105. 4:412-year-old son Leo he's got these eyes
106. 4:44this beaming smile on his face and it is
107. 4:47exactly the vision of of this child that
108. 4:49I had all those years ago you have the
109. 4:51memory of this child that gave you the
110. 4:54inspiration who appeared in a vision
111. 4:56yeah and then next you is the reality of
112. 4:58your son oh absolutely and that's part
113. 5:00of the the this mystical experience of
114. 5:02life he sometimes gets a curiosity and
115. 5:05is now old enough to realize where's
116. 5:08your hand dad and I I say oh it's it's
117. 5:10in Utah we should go find it know it's
118. 5:14it's happy where it is there are some
119. 5:16things that Aon rson can laugh about now
120. 5:19but he also shared with me some serious
121. 5:21lessons learned that he will heed the
122. 5:24rest of his life this was a physical
123. 5:26story as we all know about the guy who
124. 5:27cut his arm off but it's a metaphysical
125. 5:29story as well about what connects us to
126. 5:32one another that gives us the strength
127. 5:34uh possibly even the the the power to be
128. 5:37able to to take a drastic action knowing
129. 5:39that I was going to get back maybe
130. 5:40someday to see that boy
131. 5:42[Music]
132. 5:58yeah
133. 6:28e
134. 6:58e e