Summary:
I happened to watch an amazing movie “127 hours”
inspired by the true life experience Aron Ralston, (born October 27, 1975) an American
outdoorsman, engineer and motivational speaker.
Aron
Ralston is very widely known for having survived a canyonneering accident in
south-eastern Utah in 2003, during which he amputated his own right arm with a
dull multi-tool in order to free himself from a dislodged boulder, which had
trapped him there for five days and seven hours. After he freed himself, he had
to rappel down a 65 foot (around 20m) sheer cliff face to reach safety. The
incident is documented in Ralston's autobiography ‘Between a Rock and a Hard
Place’ and is the subject of the film ‘127 Hours.’
My observation and comment:
Most of us have very limited idea about our own
potential and strengths. History is full of incidents of people who had
displayed extraordinary spirit to show what humans are capable of achieving raising
themselves to ‘God-like’ stature in the process. It is we who limit ourselves
and become contended with our limited achievements.
The attitude, “Yes, we can!” needs to be
encouraged from childhood. We need to encourage our children to explore and
test their own strength. In our own anxiety and love for the children, we tend
to be highly protective and discourage them from stretching themselves beyond
some comfort zone. A right balance in parents’ approach could probably help
many children explore newer areas, discover, and make great strides in their
lives.
I was fortunate to watch the movie on ‘blue-ray’.
The amazing photography of the canyons in Utach is very thrilling, captivating,
absorbing and scaring too. The scene relating to Ralston and the two girls wantonly
sliding along the rock through the narrow canyon into a deep blue pool really
churned my stomach. The scene relating to Ralston amputating his own right arm
is something only mentally strong people can watch. The music score by A R
Rahman towards the end of the movie is a class only class musicians like A R
Rahman can produce.
The
Accident:
On
April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston was hiking through Blue John Canyon, in eastern Wayne
County, Utah, just south of the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands National
Park. While he was descending a slot canyon, a suspended boulder he was
climbing down became dislodged, crushing his right hand and pinning it against
the canyon wall. Ralston had not informed anybody of his hiking plans, thus no
one would be searching for him.
Assuming
that he would die, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of
remaining water, approximately 350 ml and slowly eating his small amount of
food, two burritos, while trying to extricate his arm. His efforts were futile
as he could not free his arm from the 800 lb (360 kg) chock-stone. After three
days of trying to lift and break the boulder, the dehydrated and delirious
Ralston prepared to amputate his trapped right arm at a point on the
mid-forearm, in order to escape. He experimented with tourniquets and made some
exploratory superficial cuts to his forearm in the first few days. On the
fourth day he realized that in order to free his arm he would have to cut
through the bones in it, but the tools he had available were insufficient to do
so.
When
he ran out of food and water on the fifth day, he was forced to drink his own
urine. He carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the
sandstone canyon wall, and videotaped his last goodbyes to his family. He did
not expect to survive the night.
After
waking at dawn the following day (Thursday, May 1) he had an epiphany that he
could break his radius and ulna bones using torque against his trapped arm. He
did so and then performed the amputation, which took about one hour with his multi-tool,
which included a dull two-inch knife. He never named the manufacturer of the
tool he used, other than to say it was not a Leatherman but "what you'd
get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool".
After
freeing himself, Ralston still had to get back to his car. He climbed out of
the slot canyon in which he had been trapped, rappelled down a 65-foot (20 m)
sheer wall one-handed and then hiked out of the canyon in the hot midday sun.
He was 8 miles from his vehicle, and had no phone. However, while hiking out,
he encountered a family on vacation from the Netherlands, Eric and Monique
Meijer and their son Andy, who gave him food and water and then hurried to
alert the authorities. Ralston had feared he would bleed to death; he lost 40
pounds, including 25% of his blood volume. Fortunately, the rescuers searching
for Ralston, alerted by his family that he was missing, had narrowed the search
down to Canyonlands and flew by in their helicopter. He was rescued six hours
after amputating his arm.
Ralston
has said that if he had amputated his arm earlier, he would have bled to death
before being found, while if he had not done it he would have been found dead
in the slot canyon days later. He believed he was looking forward to the
amputation and the freedom it would give.
Later,
his severed hand and forearm was 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. It was then cremated and the ashes given to Ralston. He returned to
the accident scene with Brokaw and a camera crew six months later on his 28th
birthday to film a Dateline NBC special about the accident and to scatter the
ashes of his arm where he says they belong.
Post
Accident Feat:
After
the accident happened, Ralston continued to climb mountains frequently,
including participating in a 2008 expedition to climb 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 Colarado’s fourteeners’ solo in winter, a
project he started in 1997 and resumed after the amputation in Blue John Canyon.
While
Ralston says he intends to climb Mount Everest, he did not go along with polar
explorer Eric Larsen on his "Save the Poles" expedition in 2010, as
was previously reported.
Ralston’s
background
Ralston was born on October 27, 1975, in Marion, Ohio. He
and his family moved to Denver when he was age 11. He received his college
degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, 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 left his job as a mechanical engineer with Intel in Phoenix,
Arizona, in 2002 and moved to Aspen, Colarado in order to pursue a life of
climbing mountains. He had the goal of climbing all of Colorado's "fourteeners"
— peaks over 14,000 ft high, of which there are 59; solo and during winter (a
feat that had never been recorded). He has subsequently achieved this goal in
November, 2001. In 2003, Aron got caught in a Grade 5 avalanche on Resolution
Peak, Colorado with his hiking partners Mark Beverly and Chadwick Spencer.
Nobody was seriously injured. Back in Aspen, Aron had a part-time job at Ute
Mountaineer.
In August 2009, Ralston married Jessica Trusty. His first
child, Leo, was born in February 2010.
Conclusion:
“Do what you love” or “Love
what you do” if you really want to be satisfied, successful and famed.
Source:
I thank Wikipedia for the detailed information on Aron Ralston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston
ReplyDeleteKrupaa L
09:43
1
Reply
Dear Mr.Neelakantan,
Thank you for visiting my blog and your encouraging words.
I did visit your blog & read your post on Aron Ralston, it truly requires a lot of courage.
The concluding words “Do what you love” or “Love what you do” if you really want to be satisfied, successful and famed” is surely food for thought.
I do want to leave a comment on your blog, but I unable to do so since I don’t see any comment box. I would like follow your blog, please let me know how I could so
I am a 40+ CA Professional based in Bangalore, I write only when my mind permits me and not a regular at writing but a keenly follow many blogs and spend many hours reading.
If you are fond of short stories, I suggest you look up this blog…
http://kparthas.blogspot.in
In case you do read this blog, leave me know your thoughts.
Thank you once again,
Regards
Krupa