Aron Ralston was born on October 27, 1975 in Marion, Ohio. He and his family moved to Denver when he was 12. He is a 1993 graduate of Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He received his college degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, finishing with degrees in mechanical engineering and French, with a minor in piano. At Carnegie Mellon, he served as a resident assistant, studied abroad, and was an active intramural Sports participant. He left his job as a mechanical Engineer with Intel in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2002 and moved to Aspen, Colorado in order to pursue a life of climbing mountains.

After the accident, Ralston made numerous appearances in the media. On July 21, 2003, Ralston appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Ralston documented his experience in an autobiographical book titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place, published by Atria Books on September 7, 2004. It reached #3 on The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction list. It hit #1 in New Zealand and Australia, and is the #7 best-selling memoir of all-time in the United Kingdom.

As a corporate speaker, Ralston receives an honorarium of about $25,000 per domestic speaking appearance, and up to $37,000 for international speeches. On May 4, 2007, Ralston appeared at the Swiss Economic Forum and gave a speech about "how he did not lose his hand, but gained his life back."

After the accident occurred, Ralston continued to climb mountains frequently, including participating in a 2008 expedition to climb Ojos del Salado in Chile and Monte Pissis in Argentina. In 2005, Ralston became the first person to climb all 59 ranked and/or named Colorado's 'fourteeners' solo in winter, a project he started in 1997 and resumed after the amputation in Blue John Canyon.

In August 2009, Ralston married Jessica Trusty. Their first child was born in February 2010.

British film Director Danny Boyle directed the film 127 Hours about Ralston's accident. Filming took place in March and April 2010, with a release in New York City and Los Angeles on November 5, 2010. Fox Searchlight Pictures funded the film. Actor James Franco played the role of Ralston. The movie received standing ovations at both the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Some of the audience members in Toronto fainted during the final amputation scene.

At the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011 the film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture (won by The King's Speech) and Best Actor for Franco (won by Colin Firth for his role in The King's Speech). 127 Hours was also nominated in the categories for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Editing.

He has also appeared on the Comedy Central show Tosh.0 in a Sketch with host Daniel Tosh and another climber in 2012.

In December 2013, Ralston and then-girlfriend Vita Shannon were both arrested in Colorado and charged with domestic violence after an incident at their home. The couple's two-month old child was present at the time of the incident. Charges for both were later dismissed.

He had the goal of climbing all of Colorado's "fourteeners" — peaks over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) altitude, of which there are 59 — solo and during winter (a feat that had never been recorded before). He subsequently achieved this goal in 2005. In 2003, Ralston was caught in a Grade 5 avalanche on Resolution Peak, Colorado with his skiing partners Mark Beverly and Chadwick Spencer. No one was seriously injured.