GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- The Aspen climber who amputated his own forearm after being pinned by a boulder in a Utah canyon returned to his former middle school in Greenwood Village Tuesday.

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Students get a lesson from Ralston

Aron Ralston, 27 (pictured, left), told students at West Middle School to pursue their dreams and overcome their fears. He told the students not to let other people tell them who they are -- and not to settle for someone else's expectations.

Ralston was climbing alone April 26 when his right hand became pinned under an 800-pound boulder in Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah.

After all other attempts to get free failed, He freed himself on the fifth day by snapping his bones and then using a dull knife to cut through his arm.

"If you're going to carry a knife, carry a sharp knife," Ralston told the students.

He said he applied a tourniquet, rappelled down a 60-foot cliff and walked six miles down the canyon, where he was found by several hikers.

"It would be really scary and I'm glad I wasn't in his situation, but I thought it was pretty amazing that he got out of it OK," said Leigh Johnson, a student at the middle school.