Traveler at ‘127 Hours’ Desert Breaks Leg

A 64-year-old hiker who broke his leg on September 7 crawled five miles across Utah’s Blue John Canyon, the same desert where Aron Ralston had to cut off an arm that a boulder landed on during an ordeal James Franco depicted in the movie 127 Hours.

Although Wayne Richards told KTVX-TV Monday that he prepared himself for the hike by bringing snack bars and a GPS, crawling all that way over four days was tough – especially on his knees, which he protected with a camera bag. By the time a Utah Highway Patrol pilot discovered him, he was two miles from his car.

“I just was thinking, ‘This may be it, I may not be found,’” recalled Richards, who said he got the idea to visit Blue John Canyon after watching 127 Hours. “Then I was thinking, ‘I got to get out of here.’”

Apart from breaking his leg when he fell 10 feet into a canyon, he also dislocated his shoulder, which he quickly set into place. “It was pretty dark and I couldn’t get a good footing,” he said. “After about a minute, my hands gave out and I fell.”

For as big of an admirer as Richards was of 127 Hours, it apparently hadn’t taught him to avoid one of Ralston’s biggest mistakes—he never told his friends or family where he planned to go.

This article was originally published on AllMediaNY.com