The Incredible Survival of Aron Ralston — 127 Hours in a Canyon — Transcript

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1. 0:00The air was the color of dust and
2. 0:01ancient secrets. Aaron Rston, 33 years
3. 0:04old, a mechanical engineer who had
4. 0:06traded a corporate life for the call of
5. 0:08the mountains, felt the familiar pull of
6. 0:10the Utah desert. This was his sanctuary,
7. 0:13a place where the rules of civilization
8. 0:15didn't apply. His rule was simple.
9. 0:17Always go solo, always push the limits.
10. 0:20It was Saturday, April 26th, 2003. His
11. 0:23target, Blue John Canyon, a maze of slot
12. 0:26canyons near Canyon's National Park. He
13. 0:29moved with the practiced ease of a man
14. 0:31who treated climbing like a science. His
15. 0:33pack was light, a hydration pack with
16. 0:36barely a liter of water, a cheap
17. 0:37multi-tool, a small camera, and a few
18. 0:39energy bars. He was a professional
19. 0:41risk-taker, but even he made a rookie
20. 0:43mistake. He told no one where he was
21. 0:45going. Aaron was deep in a narrow
22. 0:48shadowed slot of the canyon. The walls
23. 0:50here were barely 3 ft apart, sculpted by
24. 0:52millennia of flash floods. He was
25. 0:55repelling down a short drop, maneuvering
26. 0:57carefully around a suspended chalk
27. 0:59stone, a boulder wedged between the
28. 1:01canyon walls. It looked heavy,
29. 1:03stationary, and old. He placed his
30. 1:05weight on the boulder to leverage
31. 1:06himself past the drop. That's when the
32. 1:09silence broke, not with a crash, but
33. 1:11with a deep grinding groan that seemed
34. 1:13to come from the canyon's very
35. 1:15foundation. The chock stone shifted.
36. 1:17Aaron's instinct screamed. He tried to
37. 1:20pull back, but the rock was faster. It
38. 1:22rolled, not falling straight down, but
39. 1:24tilting inward, crushing his right hand
40. 1:26and wrist against the opposite canyon
41. 1:27wall. Two guards asked Black Marine to
42. 1:29leave his son's graduation. Then, six
43. 1:32seals silenced the room. Downzub.com.txt
44. 1:35The pain was instantaneous,
45. 1:37overwhelming, but short-lived, quickly
46. 1:39replaced by a sickening numbness. The
47. 1:41boulder weighed an estimated 800 lb. His
48. 1:44arm was pinned, immmobile, a fleshy
49. 1:47cushion between two immovable slabs of
50. 1:49rock. He didn't scream. Like the marine
51. 1:52facing the guards, Aaron's mind went
52. 1:54instantly into crisis mode. He pushed,
53. 1:56he pulled, he kicked. He tried to wedge
54. 1:58his shoulder against the boulder, but
55. 2:00the smooth, cold granite wouldn't budge.
56. 2:03He was trapped utterly and completely.
57. 2:05He looked at his wrist. It was twisted
58. 2:07at an unnatural angle. He knew with a
59. 2:10chilling certainty that the bones were
60. 2:12shattered, the tissue irrevocably
61. 2:14damaged. But the injury wasn't the
62. 2:16immediate problem. The stone was. He was
63. 2:19alone, unseen, unheard in a drainage
64. 2:21system that rarely saw tourists.
65. 2:24127 hours. That's 5 days and 7 hours
66. 2:27until his rescue. But he didn't know the
67. 2:29number yet. All he knew was minutes to
68. 2:32survive. Aaron's first 48 hours were a
69. 2:35testament to the engineering mind. A
70. 2:37relentless, methodical attempt to solve
71. 2:39a simple mechanical problem. He attacked
72. 2:41the boulder like a problem on a
73. 2:43blueprint. He used his climbing rope
74. 2:45trying to loop it around the boulder and
75. 2:47pull. The rope snapped taut, but the
76. 2:49boulder remained still. The friction
77. 2:51against the canyon wall was too great.
78. 2:53He pulled out his multi-tool, a cheap
79. 2:55Chinese-made knockoff. He tried to chip
80. 2:57away at the canyon wall, hoping to widen
81. 2:59the gap. The metal of the tool merely
82. 3:02scraped the slick sandstone, creating
83. 3:04dust, not movement. By the end of the
84. 3:06second day, the sun had baked the
85. 3:08canyon, and Aaron's small water supply
86. 3:10was half gone. He rationed it
87. 3:12meticulously, one sip every hour, just
88. 3:14enough to keep his throat wet. The
89. 3:16hallucinations began subtly. He started
90. 3:19talking to his camera, recording his
91. 3:21last will and testament, offering
92. 3:23philosophical reflections on his life.
93. 3:25This wasn't madness. It was a
94. 3:27psychological defense mechanism. The
95. 3:29mind trying to find an audience when
96. 3:31there was none. He looked at his arm,
97. 3:33now black and swollen. The circulation
98. 3:35was completely cut off. He recognized
99. 3:38the signs of necrosis. The tissue was
100. 3:40dying. The arm was no longer a part of
101. 3:42him. It was a rotting anchor. His mind
102. 3:45became a courtroom. Prosecutor, you made
103. 3:47a choice. You came alone. This is the
104. 3:50consequence. A defense. I will find a
105. 3:52way. I will survive. I am smarter than a
106. 3:55rock. Aaron had to dismantle the case
107. 3:58against his own survival. But this time,
108. 4:00the opposing council was the
109. 4:01indifferent, crushing weight of nature.
110. 4:03The energy bars were gone. The
111. 4:05temperature plunged at night, freezing
112. 4:07the canyon. Aaron tried to sleep,
113. 4:09curling against the cold stone. But the
114. 4:12relentless dull ache in his shoulder was
115. 4:14a constant cruel reminder. He was
116. 4:16desperately thirsty. He began to drink
117. 4:18his own urine, a desperate but necessary
118. 4:21survival tactic. His energy plummeted.
119. 4:24On the fourth day, he was critically
120. 4:26weak. He knew the end was near. His
121. 4:28thoughts turned dark, then unexpectedly
122. 4:30clear. He saw a vision of himself as a
123. 4:33young man playing with a future son. The
124. 4:35vision was so real, so vivid that it
125. 4:37shook him to his core. He realized he
126. 4:39was meant to live. His life wasn't over.
127. 4:42He looked at his arm again. The arm was
128. 4:44the problem. The arm was his jailer. The
129. 4:47revelation, if he couldn't move the
130. 4:49rock, he had to move past the rock. He
131. 4:51had to leave the arm behind. This
132. 4:53realization was the moment of absolute
133. 4:55psychological victory. It was the moment
134. 4:57he transcended the ordinary survival
135. 4:59instinct of preserving the body and
136. 5:01instead embraced the radical instinct of
137. 5:03preserving the self. He had two options.
138. 5:06Die with a whole body or live with one
139. 5:08arm. the inner battle. The decision was
140. 5:10agonizing. Amputating an arm is not a
141. 5:13matter of simply cutting. It involves
142. 5:15bone, tendon, nerve, artery. He knew he
143. 5:18couldn't saw through the bone with the
144. 5:20dull multi-tool. He was weak, shivering,
145. 5:22and delirious, but his mind had never
146. 5:24been sharper. He used the hose from his
147. 5:26hydration pack as a makeshift
148. 5:28tourniquet, tightening it high on his
149. 5:30bicep with his left hand and his teeth.
150. 5:32This was not the wrong tourniquet, as in
151. 5:34the snake bite scenario. This was a
152. 5:36necessary life-saving arterial clamp. If
153. 5:39he missed, he would bleed out in
154. 5:40minutes. He found a point a few inches
155. 5:42above the crush zone where the bone was
156. 5:44intact. He twisted and pushed his body
157. 5:47using the boulder as an anchor. He had
158. 5:49to snap the radius and ulna, two of the
159. 5:52strongest bones in the human body. He
160. 5:54felt a searing, unbelievable pain,
161. 5:56followed by two distinct, sickening
162. 5:58cracks. He had broken his own bones. His
163. 6:01arm was now free of the boulder's grip,
164. 6:03but still attached by flesh, nerves, and
165. 6:05tendons. He opened the multi-tool. The
166. 6:08knife blade was dull, barely capable of
167. 6:10cutting his own skin. He had to saw, not
168. 6:13slice. He started on the skin and
169. 6:15muscle. The sensation was beyond
170. 6:17description, a brutal tearing, but he
171. 6:19was operating on a dead, numbed piece of
172. 6:21flesh. He focused only on the final
173. 6:23goal, freedom. The nerves were the
174. 6:26hardest. Cutting the median and ulner
175. 6:28nerves sent jolts of white hot agony
176. 6:30through his body, causing him to scream
177. 6:32into the canyon silence. This was the
178. 6:34moment where most people would stop, but
179. 6:36Aaron pushed through, fueled by the
180. 6:38vision of his future son. After nearly
181. 6:40an hour of sawing through tendons and
182. 6:42ligaments with the blunt tool, the last
183. 6:44piece of flesh gave way. A sudden gush
184. 6:46of blood, not arterial thanks to the
185. 6:49tourniquet, but the flood of life he had
186. 6:50just cut away. He was free. 127 hours
187. 6:54since the boulder fell. Aaron had to
188. 6:56pull himself out from under the massive
189. 6:58boulder, leaving his right arm and hand
190. 7:00behind. He splined the stump, cinched
191. 7:03the tourniquet, and began the 5-mile
192. 7:05hike to his truck. He was found by a
193. 7:07family hiking through the canyon. They
194. 7:09recognized his distinct silhouette and
195. 7:11his desperate wave. They immediately
196. 7:13called for help. When the rescue team
197. 7:15arrived, they found a man on the brink
198. 7:17of death, but completely lucid, able to
199. 7:19give his own medical history and recount
200. 7:21the entire event. Aaron Rston survived
201. 7:24because he was willing to accept the
202. 7:26absolute price of freedom. He didn't
203. 7:28need to defeat a racist system or
204. 7:29outsmart a biased judge or outrun a
205. 7:32venomous snake. His battle was primal,
206. 7:34the will to live versus the indifference
207. 7:36of stone. And the will won because in
208. 7:39the end, Aaron Rston chose not to be
209. 7:41defined by his trap, but by his escape.
210. 7:44Aaron Rston's story is not just a tale
211. 7:46of physical survival. It is a brutal,
212. 7:48beautiful lesson in mental triage. He
213. 7:51faced an impossible choice. One, wait
214. 7:54for an almost certain death by
215. 7:55dehydration. Two, sever his limb and
216. 7:58face a 50/50 chance of bleeding out, but
217. 8:01a 100% chance of escape. He didn't wait
218. 8:04for external validation or rescue. He
219. 8:06became his own savior, not by wishing,
220. 8:08but by making the ultimate irreversible
221. 8:11sacrifice. Sometimes in life, the only
222. 8:14way to win is to offer the highest
223. 8:15possible price for your freedom. His
224. 8:17experience reminds us the human spirit
225. 8:20is not fragile. It is forged in the
226. 8:22deepest canyons and it can survive the
227. 8:24crushing weight of the world as long as
228. 8:26you find the strength to make the cut.
229. 8:28If this story moved you, if it gave you
230. 8:30a new perspective on what true courage
231. 8:32means, then share it with someone who
232. 8:33needs to be reminded of the power of the
233. 8:35human will. Let's start the
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235. 8:39remind us we are stronger than our
236. 8:41circumstances. Subscribe to our channel
237. 8:43for more stories like this. Stories of
238. 8:45survival, extreme circumstances, and the
239. 8:47unbelievable strength found in the human
240. 8:49heart.
241. 8:56[Music]