2026 Howard Steel Lecturer
Aron Ralston

Aron Lee Ralston is an American mountaineer, mechanical engineer, and motivational speaker best known for surviving a canyoneering accident in 2003 by amputating part of his right arm. On April 26 of that year, while descending Bluejohn Canyon in southeastern Utah alone, a dislodged boulder trapped his wrist against the canyon wall. After five days, he broke his forearm and used a dull pocketknife to amputate it, then continued through the canyon, rappelled a 65-foot drop, and hiked 7 miles to safety.

His ordeal is recounted in his autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place and was later adapted into the 2010 film 127 Hours, in which he was portrayed by James Franco. Following the accident, Ralston continued his mountaineering pursuits and became the first person to climb all of Colorado’s fourteeners solo in winter.