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American Morning
Interview with Aron Ralston
Aired June 06, 2003 - 07:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The word "courage" does not even begin to describe Aron Ralston. The hiker spent five days last month trapped in a Utah canyon pinned by an 800-pound boulder. To free himself and save his life, Ralston amputated his right arm with a pocket knife. His survival story captivated the country.
And I talked to him yesterday about the ordeal and the recovery right now, and also what went through his mind and what he remembers as he struggled to get free.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARON RALSTON, HIKER: I started with trying to move the boulder, while the adrenaline was still rolling. I thought about chipping away at the rock, which I perceived that on and off over the course of the five days. And then, of course, the last option that I ultimately pursued being that I had to amputate my arm. Those were the active options.
And then, passively, I thought I could wait until I either died or search and rescue showed up.
HEMMER: Back up just a little bit. How did you reconcile that decision? How did you say, I'm going to get out of here, but I'm going to leave without a right arm?
RALSTON: Well, the right arm was essentially lost as far as any chance for it to be recovered or to get it back to healthy function and use after about -- I think my doctors have told me about six hours after I was trapped. That essentially meant that regardless of whether I would have had a companion with me or even if I had had an entire search-and-rescue team hiking down the canyon that I would not have been able to get out of there in time to save the arm.
HEMMER: You had to break the bones in your arm, right in order to have the knife sharp enough to cut through the skin, correct?
RALSTON: Right. You really can't just cut through bones. You have to either have a bone saw or some other means to get through.
HEMMER: OK, then how long did that process take?
RALSTON: Of actually breaking the bones? Less than five minutes.
HEMMER: And then after that, severing the arm was how long? RALSTON: It took me about an hour all told. I looked at my watch after I broke my arms -- or the bones in my arm -- I only broke one of my arms. But it was 10:35 in the morning when I looked at my watch after I had broke the bones at the wrist, and it was approximately 11:33, from what I recall, when I finished.
HEMMER: Over the course of this hour, what's happening in your mind? What's happening in your heart? Did you ever want to stop? Did you ever want to say, man, I cannot go any further than this?
RALSTON: No. From the time I broke the bones, it was very much a feeling of, OK, here we go. It's like being at the top of a hill on a roller coaster that from there on it's a ride. It was like everything from that point. I had thought through it so much over the course of the five days that everything from that point was simply following a plan that I had laid out. There is, you know, a great difficulty and challenge in front of you, that as you push harder and harder you don't think you're going to be able to make it. You focus on it, and as you get closer and closer to the goal, you find deeper and deeper reserves to push you even faster and harder to get there.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: What is it then that is inside of you, maybe now or growing up as a younger kid, that said to yourself inside I'm not going to die here with an 800-pound boulder trapping me?
RALSTON: Well, there were times when I thought that I might die there, and that I think I had to come to peace with that before I could get out of there. It came to me about Tuesday evening that it might not matter what I did that I wouldn't get out of there, and that it might not matter what I did and I would get out of there. That there is sort of a peacefulness that came to me that it was almost feeling like it was predestined, that this was a trial that I just had to work through. And that if I made the right decisions along the way, which I prayed for divine help to aid me in that, that I would get out of there.
HEMMER: I remember when you met with reporters in Grand Junction, Colorado, the first time that we really heard you talk and tell your story. It seemed to me that you had just some sort of personal serenity that had come over you. Is this a case of Aron Ralston saying I'm at peace with the decision I made and the action I took in order to save my own life, in order again to be free?
RALSTON: I don't have any regrets about the decision-making that I made through the course of that stay. I'm very proud, actually, of what I was able to accomplish there. At the same time, I'm not sure that psychologically I'm totally over the fact that I no longer have a right arm.
HEMMER: What happens when Aron Ralston gets out in the wilderness yet again and finds out that you do not have the same abilities you once did? Have you thought about that much?
RALSTON: Sure, I actually have. I've thought about whether or not I perhaps overstated my potential -- my future potential, but at the same time from everything that the doctors are telling me, they say it has more to do with a person's personality as in anything else about their abilities once they're back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired June 6, 2003 - 07:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The word "courage" does not even begin to describe Aron Ralston. The hiker spent five days last month trapped in a Utah canyon pinned by an 800-pound boulder. To free himself and save his life, Ralston amputated his right arm with a pocket knife. His survival story captivated the country.
And I talked to him yesterday about the ordeal and the recovery right now, and also what went through his mind and what he remembers as he struggled to get free.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARON RALSTON, HIKER: I started with trying to move the boulder, while the adrenaline was still rolling. I thought about chipping away at the rock, which I perceived that on and off over the course of the five days. And then, of course, the last option that I ultimately pursued being that I had to amputate my arm. Those were the active options.
And then, passively, I thought I could wait until I either died or search and rescue showed up.
HEMMER: Back up just a little bit. How did you reconcile that decision? How did you say, I'm going to get out of here, but I'm going to leave without a right arm?
RALSTON: Well, the right arm was essentially lost as far as any chance for it to be recovered or to get it back to healthy function and use after about -- I think my doctors have told me about six hours after I was trapped. That essentially meant that regardless of whether I would have had a companion with me or even if I had had an entire search-and-rescue team hiking down the canyon that I would not have been able to get out of there in time to save the arm.
HEMMER: You had to break the bones in your arm, right in order to have the knife sharp enough to cut through the skin, correct?
RALSTON: Right. You really can't just cut through bones. You have to either have a bone saw or some other means to get through.
HEMMER: OK, then how long did that process take?
RALSTON: Of actually breaking the bones? Less than five minutes.
HEMMER: And then after that, severing the arm was how long? RALSTON: It took me about an hour all told. I looked at my watch after I broke my arms -- or the bones in my arm -- I only broke one of my arms. But it was 10:35 in the morning when I looked at my watch after I had broke the bones at the wrist, and it was approximately 11:33, from what I recall, when I finished.
HEMMER: Over the course of this hour, what's happening in your mind? What's happening in your heart? Did you ever want to stop? Did you ever want to say, man, I cannot go any further than this?
RALSTON: No. From the time I broke the bones, it was very much a feeling of, OK, here we go. It's like being at the top of a hill on a roller coaster that from there on it's a ride. It was like everything from that point. I had thought through it so much over the course of the five days that everything from that point was simply following a plan that I had laid out. There is, you know, a great difficulty and challenge in front of you, that as you push harder and harder you don't think you're going to be able to make it. You focus on it, and as you get closer and closer to the goal, you find deeper and deeper reserves to push you even faster and harder to get there.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: What is it then that is inside of you, maybe now or growing up as a younger kid, that said to yourself inside I'm not going to die here with an 800-pound boulder trapping me?
RALSTON: Well, there were times when I thought that I might die there, and that I think I had to come to peace with that before I could get out of there. It came to me about Tuesday evening that it might not matter what I did that I wouldn't get out of there, and that it might not matter what I did and I would get out of there. That there is sort of a peacefulness that came to me that it was almost feeling like it was predestined, that this was a trial that I just had to work through. And that if I made the right decisions along the way, which I prayed for divine help to aid me in that, that I would get out of there.
HEMMER: I remember when you met with reporters in Grand Junction, Colorado, the first time that we really heard you talk and tell your story. It seemed to me that you had just some sort of personal serenity that had come over you. Is this a case of Aron Ralston saying I'm at peace with the decision I made and the action I took in order to save my own life, in order again to be free?
RALSTON: I don't have any regrets about the decision-making that I made through the course of that stay. I'm very proud, actually, of what I was able to accomplish there. At the same time, I'm not sure that psychologically I'm totally over the fact that I no longer have a right arm.
HEMMER: What happens when Aron Ralston gets out in the wilderness yet again and finds out that you do not have the same abilities you once did? Have you thought about that much?
RALSTON: Sure, I actually have. I've thought about whether or not I perhaps overstated my potential -- my future potential, but at the same time from everything that the doctors are telling me, they say it has more to do with a person's personality as in anything else about their abilities once they're back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
