Aron Lee Ralston
Date of Birth: October 27, 1975
In 2002, Aron Ralston left his job as a mechanical engineer to climb all of Colarado's "fourteeners"—mountain peaks over 14,000 feet high—during the winter season.
Early in 2003, he was was mountain climbing alone in Colorado's Blue John Canyon when a huge boulder fell on him, pinning his right forearm. Just hours earlier, he'd bumped into a couple of young women, Kristi and Megan, and had hiked with them for awhile. After a few hours, the girls decided to hike back to their campsite and urged him to join them. Aron wanted to continue climbing for an hour or two more, but agreed to meet them later, and invited them to a party his friends were throwing 50 miles away. They also made plans to hike to Little Horse Canyon the next morning.
The two girls took longer to reach their campsite than they thought they would. Megan suggested hiking back to look for Aron, but Kristi thought he may have made it out before them and that they'd missed their rendezvouz. The next morning, they found where Aron had parked his truck, and decided he'd already headed out to Little Horse Canyon.
Aron hoped Megan and Kristi would find him, but he also realized that they didn't know him well, and might just think when he didn't show up, that he'd changed his mind. After the fifth day spent pinned against a canyon wall, slowly sipping the remainder of his water, he realized he would die if he didn't do something. His arm was crushed and his hand had suffered from lack of circulation.
Aron chose to free himself by amputating his lower right arm. He later said, "Overall, it was 100 times worse than any pain I’ve felt before."
Once free, Aron still had to rappel down a 65-foot cliff and hike eight miles back to his truck. On his way, he met other hikers, who gave him food and water and called for help. He was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital where he was stabilized, then transported to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado for surgery. Park authorities retrieved his right arm. It was later cremated.
Aron wrote a book about his experience, entitled "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," which was published in 2004. Though he has a prosthetic arm, he continues to mountain climb and in 2005, completed his climb of Colorado's "fourteeners."