Seeing the blessing in the boulder

Trapped in the Utah wilderness in 2003, one CMU graduate determined what he had to do to free himself—and did it.

Aron Lee Ralston (ENG 1997) survived a canyoneering accident by cutting off part of his right arm. He freed himself by breaking his arm bone with the boulder that had entrapped him and using a dull pocket knife for the amputation. (You may recognize this story from the film made about his experience, “127 Hours.”) Since then, he has become a motivational speaker who encourages others to turn their boulders into blessings.

When he gave the keynote speech at CMU’s 2011 commencement, he told the graduates he turned to the analytical problem-solving skills he had forged at CMU to define the problem, gather information, and brainstorm and prioritize the solutions that led to his remarkable rescue.