Aron Ralston

Ralston began working towards his goal of climbing all of Colorado's "fourteeners" — peaks over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) altitude, of which there are 59 — solo and during winter (a feat that had never been recorded before). In 2003, he was caught in a Grade 5 avalanche on Resolution Peak, Colorado with his skiing partners Mark Beverly and Chadwick Spencer. No one was seriously injured, but his friends did not speak to him in the aftermath, causing him to reevaluate his approach to risk management.

His severed hand and forearm were retrieved from under the boulder by park authorities. According to television presenter Tom Brokaw, it took 13 men, a winch and a hydraulic jack to move the boulder so that Ralston's arm could be removed. His arm was then cremated and the ashes given to Ralston. He returned to the accident scene with Tom Brokaw and a camera crew six months later, on his 28th birthday, to film a Dateline NBC special about the accident in which he scattered the ashes of his arm there, where, he said, they belong.

In 2013, Ralston and his girlfriend, Vita Shannon, who have a daughter together, were both arrested after an altercation at their home. The circumstances of the altercation are unclear. Charges against Ralston were dropped shortly after, and charges against Shannon were dropped after Ralston did not show up to a court hearing.

He has also appeared on the Comedy Central show Tosh.0 in a sketch with host Daniel Tosh and another climber in 2012.

In 2011 Ralston was a contestant on the U.S. television show Minute To Win It, where he won $125,000 for Wilderness Workshop, made a cameo on The Simpsons in "Treehouse of Horror XXII"., took part in the reality show Alone in the Wild, where he had to 'survive' in the wild with a video camera and a bag of supplies, and delivered the commencement speech on May 15, 2011, at Carnegie Mellon University for the graduating classes of 2011 and 2013.

At the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011 the film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture (won by The King's Speech) and Best Actor for Franco (won by Colin Firth for his role in The King's Speech). 127 Hours was also nominated in the categories for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Editing.

The incident is documented in Ralston's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place and is the subject of the 2010 film 127 Hours where he is portrayed by James Franco.

British film director Danny Boyle directed the film 127 Hours about Ralston's accident. Filming took place in March and April 2010, with a release in New York City and Los Angeles on November 5, 2010. Fox Searchlight Pictures funded the film. Actor James Franco played the role of Ralston. The movie received standing ovations at both the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Some of the audience members in Toronto fainted during the final amputation scene.

In August 2009, Ralston married Jessica Trusty. Their first child was born in February 2010.

In 2008, Ralston signed on to advise polar explorer Eric Larsen on his 2009/2010 "Save the Poles" expedition, of traveling to the north and south poles, and climbing Mount Everest (sometimes referred to as the third pole) within the same year.

As a corporate speaker, Ralston receives an honorarium of about $25,000 per domestic speaking appearance, and up to $37,000 for international speeches. On May 4, 2007, Ralston appeared at the Swiss Economic Forum and gave a speech about "how he did not lose his hand, but gained his life back."

In 2006, Ralston was featured as a panelist in Miller Lite's "Man Laws" ad campaign.

He later noted that surviving being trapped in the canyon had given him a sense of invincibility, at a time that it should have humbled him. He lost friends to suicide, and became depressed after his girlfriend broke up with him in 2006, and has tried to shift his focus away from adventure seeking for esteem purposes.

After his recovery he continued to climb mountains, including Aconcagua in 2005, and in 2008, Ojos del Salado in Chile and Monte Pissis in Argentina. In 2005, Ralston became the first person to climb all 59 ranked and/or named Colorado's 'fourteeners' solo in winter, a project he started in 1997 and resumed after the amputation in Bluejohn Canyon.

Ralston documented his experience in an autobiographical book titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published by Atria Books in September, 2004. It reached #3 on The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction list. It hit #1 in New Zealand and Australia, and is the #7 best-selling memoir of all-time in the United Kingdom. Later that month, Ralston's story was featured on a two-hour edition of Dateline NBC called "Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon". Ralston has appeared twice on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CNN's American Morning with Bill Hemmer, Minute to Win It, Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN Saturday Morning, Enough Rope. and CNBC with Deborah Norville. On September 28, 2004, he appeared on the radio program The Bob Rivers Show and described his ordeal as "six days of terror and horror."

On April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston was canyoneering alone through Bluejohn Canyon, in eastern Wayne County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National Park. While he was descending the lower stretches of the slot canyon, a suspended boulder became dislodged while he was climbing down from it. The boulder first smashed his left hand, and then crushed his right hand against the canyon wall. Ralston had not informed anyone of his hiking plans, nor did he have any way to call for help.

After the accident occurred, Ralston made numerous appearances in the media. On July 21, 2003, Ralston appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and his story was featured by GQ's "Men of the Year” and Vanity Fair's "People of 2003".

Ralston worked as a mechanical engineer with Intel in Ocotillo, Tacoma and Albuquerque for five years, but found himself burned out by working in a large corporation. During his time as an engineer he had built up skills in mountaineering, and in 2002 he quit in order to climb Denali. He moved to Aspen, Colorado in order to pursue a life of climbing mountains.

Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975) is an American outdoorsman, mechanical engineer and motivational speaker known for surviving a canyoneering accident by cutting off his own arm. During a solo descent of Bluejohn Canyon in southeastern Utah he dislodged a boulder, pinning his right wrist to the side of the canyon wall. After five days he was able to amputate his arm with a dull pocketknife, make his way through the rest of the canyon, rappel down a 65-foot (20 m) drop, and hike 7 miles (11 km) to safety.

Aron Ralston was born on October 27, 1975 in Marion, Ohio. He and his family moved to Denver when he was 12, where he attended Cherry Creek High School and learned to ski and backpack. He received his college degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, finishing with degrees in mechanical engineering and French, with a minor in piano. At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a resident assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural sports participant. He also worked as a rafting guide during the summer.