Aron Ralston

What would you do to save your own life? Would you go as far as to having to cut off your own limb? This is a story on a hiker who did something very heroic and amazing to save his life.

Aron Ralston was very hard working and successful in his early life. He left his job as a mechanical engineer to climb all of Colorado’s mountains that are above 14,000 feet, “fourteeners” as they called them. He always wanted to be a mountain climber, which caused his life to change a lot. This choice was going to make him famous.

Aron Ralston has a lot of perseverance. He is involved in adventure racing, mountain biking, white water canoeing, trail running, in-line skating, and swimming. He is very active and healthy. The fact that he was active and healthy, and participated in many activities does not change what is going to happen. His choice to be a mountaineer, was not the best choice he ever made, he is going to face his biggest challenge yet.

Aron Ralston is extremely brave. His most heroic journey was about to begin. He was hiking alone in the scorching desert. He used a rope to look around in a hole that was 65 feet down in the ground. Suddenly an enormous one-thousand pound boulder rolled out of place and pinned his right arm against the rock wall. He could not get out no matter what he tried to do to free himself. He struggled to try to move the rock and move his arm, but neither would move at all. After 5 mind wrenching days, with no food and almost dying of dehydration, it came to him, he had two choices, cut off his arm to free himself, or die of starvation. It may seem like an impossible choice to make but the choice was obvious. He decided it was the best to free himself, sacrificing his right arm. He used his dull pocketknife to cut through the veins and the bone of his elbow and managed to free himself, while bleeding tremendously. Luckily for him, he had a first aid kit and a rope, he bandaged his arm to stop the bleeding. Without it, he probably wouldn’t have survived. After he managed to stop the bleeding from his arm, he used the rope and threw it to the top of the hole he was in. They only way out was to climb the rope 65 feet out of the deep hole that he was stuck in, with one arm, which seems nearly impossible. He might not have been able to do that if it weren’t for his activeness and fitness. He then had to walk 8 miles to reach his car. And drive to the nearest hospital.

He is now a public speaker. And he climbs mountains as much as he can. He also became the first person ever to climb all of Colorado’s “fourteeners” (mountains with peaks above 14,000 feet) solo in the winter. He said that cutting the muscle,nerve, and breaking the bone was 100 times more painful than anything he’s ever felt in his life. He is still successful now. He wrote 2 books on the incident he had, “Between a rock and a hard place” and, “ A hand and a forearm are not a life”.