'127 Hours' adventurer inspires others to escape 'boulders' in life

NORMAN — Aron Ralston carved his name and the letters “RIP” in the wall of a canyon in southeastern Utah where an 800-pound boulder had crushed his right arm, trapping him in place.

After five days, he was ready to go. He was in his grave.

Then, he had a vision of a blue-eyed boy who he believed was his future son. Ralston watched himself scoop up the boy with his left hand and a handless right arm. The boy got him through the night.

After six days of entrapment, Ralston freed himself from the boulder by breaking the bones in his lower right arm and cutting it off.

Ralston spoke Friday afternoon at the Explore Oklahoma Healthcare Summit inside the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, not about what the boulder took from him but rather what it gave.

“I stepped out of my grave and into my life again,” he said.

Before he left that spot, Ralston took a picture of the boulder and gave thanks.

He has returned close to a dozen times during the past 12 years. Each time, he places his hand on the boulder and says thank you. Sometimes he cries tears of gratitude.

“I left something behind,” Ralston said. “But the way I look at this, the way that I see it, is that I didn’t lose anything. On May 1, 2003, when I walked to a miraculous rescue, I only gained. I gained my life back, as well as that I gained many lessons, gifts, in fact.”

Among those gifts are an understanding of what is really important in life and the knowledge that he is capable of more than he had ever imagined.

Ralston, who wrote a bestselling book about his experience that was made into the feature film “127 Hours” starring James Franco, has shared that message through speaking engagements.

On Friday, he challenged people in the audience to identify their own boulders and look at them as blessings rather than burdens. Whether they are stress, anxiety or fear, Ralston said those “boulders” can help show people what’s important and what’s possible.

“I was discovering that I was capable of a lot more than what I saw in myself,” Ralston said.

In Colorado, there are 59 mountains that scale over 14,000 feet. When Ralston walked into the canyon that nearly claimed his life, he was about three-quarters of the way through climbing all of them solo in winter.

But he had to learn to do even the simplest tasks again after cutting off his arm.

In less than three years after losing his right arm, he climbed the final peak. He said he stood at the last summit understanding he hadn’t done it alone.

Ralston also became the first amputee to row a raft through all the rapids at the Grand Canyon. He’s done it twice.

The boulder that once trapped him became a blessing, in a way.

“For me, this was not at all the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Ralston said. “ … The way I see it is that this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened for me in my life.”