“… this story began 34 years ago, I was 19 years old and we were traveling from Montevideo to Santiago de Chile in an end-of-season trip of the Old Christians Club. The Old Christians is a club of former students of the Christian Brothers College, an Irish school run by Christian Brothers in which catholic religion and rugby stand out…”.

“… taking advantage of the window, I try to enjoy the mountain landscape, but some clouds do not allow me to, and suddenly, I see land through the window. Hearing the roar of the engines and the desperate shouts of those of us who were in the plane was only an instant, a fraction of a second. We had crashed! The wings of the airplane came off and the tail broke while flying down the mountain, with part of the seats in which I had been a few minutes before. The rest of the airplane slid down the mountain, stopping by the accumulation of snow on its nose…”

“… one day I go past one of the ones who was producing water and a drop of blood falls at the side of my hand. My partner tells me that I am bleeding and I pass my other hand over it and remove the blood and tell him there is nothing wrong with me. I tell Roberto Canessa about the incident and he checks me up and unstitches the sleeve of the jacket that weighed about three kilos, it was an enormous blood clot,

almost the size of a liver itself…”

“… maybe this is the part of our story most spectacular for people or the press in general. We must not forget that the bodies that lay there were those of our partners, our friends, our neighbors, known to us for our whole life. But over the hurt were also the rupture of a taboo and the conscience of our leaving one civilization in order to start another one. A society with our rules, with its own codes and prohibitions. Those rules arose from inside ourselves, they were established and respected. But when someone, at some time, infringed them, he received as a punishment the moral sanction of the group, and in those circumstances, it was the worst thing that could happen to one; to receive the disapproval of the rest of our equals…”.

“…aware of the fact that the chances of being rescued lay in the legs of the members of the expedition, the group contributed with everything necessary for us to be in the best possible physical conditions. We received double portions of food, better places to sleep (however, I preferred staying at my usual place), the coats we considered most convenient and we were exempted from the tasks which for the others were compulsory. Deep down, we members of the expedition always thought that if we were going to die, it would be walking, trying to find a way out of the place. On the other hand, we were completely at “stake”, encountering unimaginable dangers and ready to confront anything that would happen to us, maybe with certain unconsciousness but contributing with what we had: our legs and our effort…”

“…we started our climb, the mountain was enormous, but salvation was behind it and we did not take into consideration our problem too much. That was it and we were going to overcome it. Little by little, step by step, we climbed. The step by step is literal since we had to make steps on our way up, kicking and kicking several times until an inlet was formed which allowed us to place our feet and go up one meter. On our way up we realized that using another partner’s steps was not a good idea since it could not bear the weight and one fell one or two meters and had to start all over again. Therefore, each one was making his own way on the track. Feet, hands and a great effort with each step allowed us to obtain a perspective of the valley and of the airplane…”

“… when the sun went down, we decided to get in our sleeping bags and sleep, we were exhausted, we ate something and we quickly fell into a deep sleep. On the following morning, we went on with our

track, we had few things with us and we continued going up. Afterwards, I would learn that my backpack was the heaviest of the three; the food estimated for ten days for three people was on my back. It was not a matter of seeing who had the heaviest backpack or the lightest one, each one had to keep to one’s role and that was how it was…”

“… I said goodbye with hugs and slowly went back, undoing the track down the mountain, a short while later I stopped seeing them and I truly felt a sensation of the most absolute loneliness. I was alone, in the middle of the Andes and calmly walking towards the airplane that was still out of sight. In some of the stretches I sat on a cushion, I placed another on my feet and started to slide down the slope. Had it not been for the circumstances, I would have enjoyed it, but a light chill ran down my back, it was not fear, it was the following step, being at stake, at risk, where anything could happen to me, I was doing my thing and on my own…”
“…Days went by and nothing, one after the other, after the other, until one morning, playing with the dial of the radio with Daniel Fernández, the same radio on which we had heard the news that the search for us had been abandoned, and being near him, I heard a voice that sounded familiar. I was studying Law at that time and I used to wake up at 7 a.m. and listen to a news program on El Espectador, a radio from

Montevideo. I had got used to the voice of the reporter from listening to him so much. When hearing his voice I shouted at Daniel to stop there. It was the 7 a.m. news program and they were saying that two Uruguayans had been found in the mountain. At that moment we knew we had been saved…”.

“.. the common object we all had was the one that kept us afloat. We all contributed what little or much we had to give, some of us giving a lot, even the most precious asset we have, our lives. Each one, from a different position, gave 100% of what he had to give. Starting with the simplest but vital thing for all of us that was producing water (there were some who spent 72 days making water) to more difficult tasks like being in charge of the food, the cleaning and drying of the plane. The members of the expedition gave everything they had to give to find a way out. There was activity planning, leaders were born to the extent of the needs and each one took his place without renunciation. A strategy led by our captain at the beginning and by the Strauch cousins for almost two months, when no decision was taken without going through their hands, but the group feeling that it was everyone’s decision. And lastly, an execution carried out by the members of the expedition, who in spite of their having the last word in the field, started on something pre-established…”