Man vs. Wild

On July 27th, Hiram volunteered to go on a wilderness survival trek with some of the young men he's worked with. It was man vs. wild; the plan was for them to basically fend for themselves- no sleeping bags or tents, kill their own food, hike mountains, etc. For four days.

We weren't sure if he should go or not, since Liz was 38 weeks pregnant at the time and could possibly go into labor. But since the trek was close to home (Little Cottonwood Canyon) and there would be some cell phone service, we thought it would be safe. And we were right- Liz thankfully did not go into labor during the trek.

However, Hiram was sleep deprived after working a night shift when they left on their journey. And in a moment of not thinking clearly, he accidentally fell down a snowy mountain, over lots of boulders. He got really banged up, breaking four ribs and his pelvis and damaging his right clavicle. He got picked up by search and rescue, then life flighted to the nearest hospital. He was really lucky not to have been injured a lot worse! He's now pretty much healed, with just a few scars. And now he says he can tell when there's going to be a change in the weather, in his bones.

Someone was actually taping him as he fell (not knowing in the beginning that he would fall so far!) The video, along with an interview of Hiram, made the news and YouTube. And Hiram's now famous. But mostly just really lucky...

Here's a link to his news story: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=16668613


It's pretty graphic...