Climbing Trail
The Andes tragedy Part 3
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Mid-October was the time for big Andean storms to go berserk, which sometimes kept us in the cabin for a full 24 hours. In these times our friends are one by one killed. Victims fall every few days, and those of us who survive start to think death will be much easier than having to survive in the debris of this frozen plane.
But the remaining people begin to transform into a single organism, including those barely able to move due to serious injuries. We will seriously listen to every good idea, like humans in the early days when forced to survive. Each of us contributes in his own way. We consciously put aside the ego.
This situation is similar to a rugby match without a reserve player. When a player is injured, the other friend will force themselves to play many positions to close the gap. All of our qualities in a world beyond selfishness, pride, dishonesty are forgotten in this frozen world.
Nando Parrado suffered from cerebral edema that almost took his life, but a lucky treatment miraculously saved him: in a coma, we left his head all night in the snow. And ice, it turns out that the best remedy for edema and pain relief that its use in medicine will be widely used twenty years from that day.
One very crucial and disturbing thing in those early days was thirst. Even though we were surrounded by snow, without any knowledge we were unable to cultivate it. Eating ice directly even makes our tongue irritation and sore in the throat. Fito Strauch had a simple idea. He placed the thin ice on a sheet of aluminum obtained from the back of the chair, twisted it into a funnel and allowed the melted ice to flow into the bottle.
Other items also change their function. Women's perfumes become disinfectants, razors become operating knives, rugby shirts become bandages.
Fito, worried that the reflection of sunlight in the snow could cause blindness, then made several pairs of sunglasses from the sunshield he found in the cockpit. And since it was impossible to walk in the snow after noon without sinking a foot in the snow, Fito tied a pair of seat pads to his feet and tied them with a seatbelt to use as emergency snowshoes.
We also arrange the distribution of sleeping rations in the most comfortable place on the plane. In the conditions of the time, the most comfortable place was the guarantee of life. Beyond that death can pick us at random.
Without special orders, we seemed to understand each other's duties. Gustavo Nicolich and Fito Strauch each morning re-establish the cross that always falls every night, Alvaro Mangino and Arturo Nogueira run the production of water, I myself take care of Vasco Echavarren, he said, Daniel Fernandez always massages Bobby Francois's legs to keep them from freezing, Roy Harley arranges the inside of the plane to stay livable, Carlitos Paez and Gustavo Zerbino collected personal belongings of our deceased friend such as documents, medals, watches and collected them in one small suitcase.
After our rugby captain, Marcelo, died from an avalanche, leadership was taken over by three brothers: Fito Strauch, Eduardo Strauch and Daniel Fernandez. They led what was left of us well. They always listen to any ideas.
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