Steve Allen never had to cut off his arm.

But he’s not saying Aron Ralston’s a fool for putting himself in that situation. Not by a long shot.

“Total bad luck,” is how Allen, one of the premier canyoneers of the Utah slots, describes Ralston’s now-famous experience in April 2003 in Bluejohn Canyon, during which Ralston amputated part of his right arm.

Ralston’s story resonates in all-too-uncomfortable ways to those of us who hike the canyons of Utah. The hazards are many: Extreme heat or cold. You can get lost, washed away in a flash flood, injured or, in Ralston’s case, injured and stuck.

Allen, a Durangoan for several years now, has been soloing Utah’s canyons since 1968. Having written three guidebooks on the subject and being perhaps the first to make it through Bluejohn Canyon, his word carries some weight.

Go to film studio Fox Searchlight’s official website for “127 Hours,” and you’ll find a 2-minute, 46-second video vignette featuring Allen’s thoughts on Ralston’s predicament, the canyon and the movie.

“He definitely likes to push it. Nothing wrong with that,” Allen, 59, said of Ralston, 35. “This was an accident. I think we could all see ourselves there. You always like to think, ‘I’m so experienced this could never happen to me.’ Reality is, as they say, (stuff) happens. This was one of those.”

Allen met Ralston through their mutual wish to save the canyons and wilderness they frequent. They bonded a couple years ago on a Colorado River trip in Cataract Canyon to promote the Durango-based Great Old Broads for Wilderness.

“They were the talent,” Ronni Egan, Great Old Broads director, said of Allen and Ralston.

Allen, her longtime friend, “probably knows those canyons better than anyone alive.”

And of Ralston, she said, “He’s a great spokesperson for the wilderness and a nice guy in general.” She commends Ralston for using his new-found fame “to protect the places he loves.”

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, “127 Hours” is the movie based on Ralston’s trip through Bluejohn Canyon in April 2003. A rock dislodged and trapped his arm, which he cut off near the wrist to break free and survive. The movie has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture.

During a lunch and interview, Allen provided some insight into the movie and canyoneering in general.

It’s a sport that’s escalated in popularity in the last decade. The upside to that is dozens of routes are now researchable and accessible to all. The downsides: more people in fragile, once-pristine canyons, permanent bolts drilled into rock, and inexperienced adventurers getting into trouble.

It concerns Allen that people with little exposure to the outdoors disregard weather and backcountry hazards.

“My classic example of slots now is people will drive to the top of the slot, go down through. ... They don’t even have the experience of walking the slickrock to the top of the thing. It’s just about, ‘do the slot.’

“What we’re seeing, trip after trip, person after person, things going wrong,” Allen said.

Ralston does not fit into the inexperienced category. Thrill-seeker, perhaps. A Coloradan since grade school, Ralston took to the mountains with ferocity. In 2005, he completed a multi-year mission to climb and ski all the state’s Fourteeners in winter by himself, ending on Mount Eolus in the Needles.

Allen said he can’t fault Ralston for not telling anyone he was going to Bluejohn, which delayed search efforts.

“I would go out literally six months at a time, and nobody had a clue where I was,” Allen said. “As far as the actual rock rolling, that was just an accident. That stuff happens.”

Bluejohn may become popular for a while as people see the movie, or read Ralston’s book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and grow curious to explore it. It is not among Allen’s favorite canyons, and not particularly technical.

“We’ve gotta watch our language on this because if you say it’s easy then people without the proper skills go through it. I’d hate to leave the impression it’s a walk-through.”

Early in Allen’s canyoneering days, there was “essentially nobody out there.” He developed a leave-no-trace ethic as he made first runs through many canyons, including Bluejohn.

“I would think I was the first. You never know. ... You always like to think that the next person behind you thinks they were the first person.”

For the featurette, Allen traveled to Bluejohn, where a production company – separate from the movie production company – filmed him for a day. He arrived just as helicopters were flying all the movie actors and equipment out.

Ralston, on location for much of the filming, stayed an extra day to hang out with Allen.

“He’s actually doing a lot with his fame,” Allen said of Ralston. “He’s doing a lot of good in the world, which is what I admire most about him.”

Allen pictures himself with his arm pinned to the canyon wall and can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would have been. Ralston stayed in that spot for five days.

“I couldn’t have stood there for that long,” Allen said. He imagines how his head, his back, his neck would’ve hurt being stuck in one position.

“I probably would have cut my arm off after two hours.”

johnp@durangoherald.com. John Peel writes a weekly human-interest column.