Sounds like a bone head move, huh? City boy sees movie, comes out west, tells no one where he is nor what he is doing, forgets that he’s 64 years old, and charges off into wilderness without a solid idea of what he is getting into. I guess he learned nothing from the movie “127 Hours” that inspired his trip to Utah. Yeah, I am being critical, but I’ve gotta give it to this guy, he is pretty goddam tough to have made it out of there crawling for 4 days with a shattered leg. Kinda badass.
Slot canyon in Blue John Canyon. photo: americansouthwest.com
The canyon this accident occurred within was the EXACT same canyon that Aron Ralston cut his arm off in. The canyon is named Little Blue John Canyon and it’s highly featured in the new movie about Aron’s experience: “127 Hours.”
The exact boulder that Aron Ralston lost his arm to in 2003. photo: climb-utah.com
The dude that just pulled off this new deformed-human-endurance-adventure is from Concord, North Carolina. Amos Wayne Richards was inspired to come out west and hike that exact canyon after watching the movie “127 Hours.”
1. Amos hikes into Little Blue John Canyon
2. Falls 10 feet, shatters one leg, dislocates shoulder (was able to put shoulder back in)
3. No cell phone service…obviously
4. Eats two protein bars, fills water bottles with rain
5. Crawls for 4 days covering 5 miles following his GPS
Aron Ralston in Water Holes Canyon. photo: climb-utah.com
6. Rangers find Amos’ camp unattended and begin looking for him with helicopter
7. Amos captures helicopter’s attention with flash from his camera (pretty smart)
8. Amos is taken to hospital to recover from shattered leg and dehydration
9. This accident happened on September 8th, 2011
If you haven’t heard the story of Aron Ralston: He charged into Little Blue John Canyon in 2003 without telling anyone where he was, got his arm trapped by a boulder for days, ended up cutting his arm off with a dull pocket knife, and hiked his way out to safety. Since then he has become rich from a book and movie deal and has a killer go-go gadget arm with many attachments. The guy is a hardcore mountaineer and ski mountaineer. I met him on Denali and the guy was the only one skiing the Messner and Orient Express and he was making it look good. He was also a very nice guy.
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