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Aron Ralston recounts his life-changing experience to Eastern Sierra audiences (Photo: Kirkner)

Nearly 10 years after the incident that made him famous, Aron Ralston, the man known for amputating his own arm to escape certain death in Blue John Canyon, Utah spoke in Bishop on March 6. Listening to the vivid details of Ralston’s tale of what happened that fateful day in April 2003, one might believe that the experience had happened yesterday.

“Hell isn’t hot and crowded,” Ralston said when describing his situation. “It’s cold and lonely at the bottom of a canyon. I was standing in my own grave.”

Ralston spoke on behalf of the annual Community Reads program. His book, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” was chosen as this year’s book to read. The Inyo County portion of this year’s Community Reads is winding down. It’s final performance of the two-month long program will be held on March 27 when the public is invited to a showing of Tom Brokaw’s interview with Ralston for NBC. Visit the Inyo County Superintendent of School’s website for the remaining calendar.

Mono County, however, kicked off its Community Reads program with Ralston’s presentation on Tuesday. Check out its website, http://www.monocoe.org/ or call 760.934.0031 for presentations and activities in Mono County.

Prior to Ralston’s presentation to the general public on March 6, he spoke to Inyo County school kids. Approximately 1,000 students, from elementary to high school listened to Ralston’s tale and were able to ask questions. According to Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer, the most popular question was asking Ralston to “take off his arm,” which he graciously did.

At the public presentation, some of the most interesting questions also came from young people. One young man asked if Ralston would have rather lost his leg, while another asked whether he ever thought about getting a hand transplant rather than continuing to use the prosthetic he currently wears and designed himself.

To the first question, Ralston replied that it was a bit of toss up since the different activities he’s involved with require different limbs and not having a leg would present different challenges than those he currently faces. To the second question, he explained that at the time of his accident, hand transplants were not as common as they are now.

“I got used to my image of myself with a prosthetic and didn’t feel a hand transplant was for me,” he said.

Ralston concluded the event with a book signing. People waited in line for over an hour to receive his signature in their tome.

It seems that 99.9% of the time, movies fail to live up to the hype of the well-written books they are based on. Such is the case with “127 hours,” based on the book “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” by Aron Ralston.

I saw the movie a few years ago through my Netflix’s account. It was interesting enough, and gruesome enough to make me close my eyes when the Ralston character, played by James Franco, amputated his own arm, but I hadn’t planned to read the book after seeing the movie. Usually I read the book first, and since it hadn’t happened that way, I shrugged the reading off.

But then I found out at the beginning of this year that Inyo County had chosen “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” for its annual Community Reads book, and Mono County was co-sponsoring a visit from Ralston to the Eastern Sierra. It was a good excuse to pick up the book and read about the harrowing account directly from Ralston’s pen.

Immediately two things stuck out that had not been portrayed in the movie. Ralston shared a similar point of view to that of many Eastern Sierrans. He writes:

“There’s a mostly unspoken acknowledgement among the voluntarily impoverished dues-payers of our towns that it’s better to be fiscally poor yet rich in experience — living the dream — than to be traditionally wealthy but live separate from one’s passions … Better to be a penniless local than the affluent visitor.”

While some Mammoth Mountain employees may not fully agree this week (see layoff story), many worker bees in the Eastern Sierra may be able to relate.

The second notable portion of the book that wasn’t stressed enough in the movie were Ralston’s flashbacks of the many experiences he had in his life prior to getting his arm stuck under the chockstone. The reader feels like they are with him as he “rings both the bells,” in Crested Butte and loses friends after pressuring them to ski a bowl that winds up avalanching and carrying the group with it, nearly killing one of them.

These memories and flashbacks are what seem to keep Ralston alive. While it may have been too tough to fully express these memories in the film, without them, it seems Ralston would have quickly lost his mind and his will to live during his ordeal.

But don’t listen to me. You can hear exactly what got him through those 127 hours of confinement straight from the horse’s mouth this Tuesday, March 6 in Bishop.

The Community Reads event is a two-month program that runs from the end of January to the end of March, and is sponsored by the Inyo County Superintendent of Schools. The Mono County Office of Education is also helping sponsor Ralston’s appearance.

“It’s a big deal to host speakers of this caliber,” said Sondra Petersen, Community Reads Program Coordinator.

Ralston will speak at 10:45 a.m. to school students and then again at noon to the general public. Admission is free and the public event will be held at the Charles Brown Auditorium. Attendees are encouraged to bring their lunch and enjoy Ralston’s tale, followed by a Q and A and a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event.

-Press Release