#22 Escape from the Grand Canyon

You’re never more grateful for being alive then after you just almost died. And i was i was dead. I wasn’t just almost dead. I was dead for six days. There is a sense in my life that this will be part of my life forever and ever. Yeah I’m the guy who cut his arm off.

In 2003 his story made national headlines. A solo hiker trapped by a canyon boulder, forced to take drastic measures to free himself.

There’s a burden to feel that I feel. Hey here’s the privilege of having your life you know so now what do i do?

Six years later 33-year-old Aaron Ralston struggles to answer that question.

Get myself into a position where I’m grabbing on to one of the sides of the boulder. The back of the boulder. And i can work my my legs down first until then…

It was not the way he intended to find fame.

A windy day in February

Instead in his early 20s Ralston hoped to become the first to climb all of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks. Solo during winter.

It was experience of risk for the sake of self-discovery. I had this these insecurities of really if I was adequate enough, if I was good enough, if I was good at anything. And then in order to feel something I had to be in riskier environments.

But a solo hike, begun in Blue John Canyon Utah in April of 2003, presented minimal risks. Save for one nearly fatal decision.

As I went out there I made a choice. Not only to be by myself, but I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.

Alone, in a remote part of the canyon the boulder he was climbing became loose.

The boulder ricocheted between the walls and it ensnared my my right hand. And then settled between the walls again so that i became trapped. My arm was crushed flat for about the last eight to nine inches. We always make choices of what we want in our life. So, for some reason I had wanted that experience. What would I do if I were in a situation where my life was on the line? Oh, you really wanted to know? Well, here, you’re gonna find out hear.

Remarkably, he documented the hours and days that followed using his digital camera.

I spent six days there trapped, until, finally, I had an epiphany of how i could get myself free by first breaking the bones in my arm, and then using the knife that I had to cut through the soft tissues and extract myself.

Media attention was instantaneous. But privately the 27-year-old grappled with the meaning of his survival.

You imagine, like, if your grandmother gives you a sweater for Christmas that, like, that you feel a little bit of pressure to make sure you wear it. So, like, imagine like the gift of having your life, like, I feel a little bit of pressure.

The wilderness gave me a gift of my life. It’s given us all a gift of this story of courage.

Six years later he is both blessed by and beholden to the notoriety. He works full-time as a motivational speaker. And his 2004 book has been optioned for film.

I work with being accepting that this is my life. Very inspiring to me. And yet it i also have conversations with my girlfriend about what is my life outside of that. All right climbing. I still have an element of of adventure and exploration and discovery in my life. But I also understand that that there’s a fullness and a wholeness that’s here and this aliveness that comes more from being more open and not needing to feel so extreme.

And still questions of identity persist.

Even years later people feel that, like, why are we paying attention to him? What, why, like, why are we celebrating this this guy who kind of was an idiot and made a big mistake? And – isn’t that talented of a climber and all the rest of this. And I’m just, like, yeah, totally, tell me when you figure it out because I’d like to know, okay?