Self-study activity:
Watch this The New York Times interview with Aron Ralston, the protagonist of the event in real life, and answer the questions below about it. The video is part of a British Red Cross lesson.
When did the events take place?
How dangerous was the trip?
What mistake did Aron Ralston make?
A boulder (=large rock) trapped Aron’s arm, how much of his arm got trapped?
What did Aron use his digital camera for?
How long was Aron trapped?
How did Aron manage to free himself?
To check the answers, you can read the transcript below.
You can also watch film maker Daniel Boyle discussing Aron's ordeal on this other British Red Cross video. The full transcript, courtesy of the British Red Cross, is also below.
As I went out there I made a choice, not only to be by myself – but I didn't tell anyone where I was going.
Alone in a remote part of the canyon, the boulder he was climbing became loose.
The boulder ricocheted between the walls and it ensnared my right hand and then settled between the walls again so that I became trapped. My arm was crushed flat for about the last eight to nine inches.
We always make choices of what we want in our life. So for some reason I wanted that experience. What would I do if I were in a situation where my life was on the line? Oh? You really wanted to know? Well here, you're going to find out, Aron.
Remarkably he documented the hours and days that followed using his digital camera.
I spent six days there trapped until finally I had an epiphany of how I could get myself free by first breaking the bones in my arm and then using the knife that I had to cut through the soft tissues and extract myself.
Weirdly enough this guy took a camera with him. He had a video camera with him. And he left a series of video messages every day – he was trapped there for six days. He's never shown them to anyone. His mum's seen them, a couple of friends, they're in a bank vault. He did show them to us and Franco and it's weird watching them. Because he makes them every day at the same time and leaves this message. And he thinks he's going to die, you can see.
And the really weird thing, and we couldn't do this because we didn't want to do CG [computer graphics], it's the only way you could do it, is when he runs out of water which he does after about three days. There's a gap then to him leaving the next message but there's no gap in the tape because it just jumps you know it's just like because he turns it on and off. But the difference in him it's like "wawwh" [gestures]. When you've been without water it's not like weight loss, you know like taking out the calories or carbohydrates or anything like that. It's actually like a weird shrinking of the human spirit. He just vanishes in a way.
