Last night, I ventured out into the cold pouring rain to Tidal Wave Booksellers for a talk and book signing by Aron Ralston, the climber who cut off the lower portion of his right arm in order to extricate himself from a very nasty situation.
Tidal Wave was packed. SRO - Standing Room Only - there must have been 400 people. The Fire Marshall was right there making sure everything was copacetic. We even received a fire safety and evacuation briefing prior to Aron's talk.
A month ago, I read an excerpt of Aron's book in Outside Magazine. I was pleasantly surprised - Aron can write and his account of his entrapment is gripping. And he's the kind of guy I know - a climber who understands risks and when confronted with a catastrophe, reacts and processes in a methodical (but very human) way.
Aron's talk was very interesting - and fortunately, he did not read from his book. Instead he just told his story in a very human straight forward way. His experience was more accessible because he wasn't reading aloud. There was nothing between him and the audience.
The questions afterward were very interesting - at least half of the questions were related to the spiritual implications of his story - God, animal spirits, visions, you name it...
I really enjoyed the evening - even though I was standing up in the book stacks for the entire presentation (and I had arrived an hour early!!!!).
8:30:58 PM 
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