Personal Narrative: The Old Christians Rugby Team

Log 1- We (The Old Christians Rugby team) have been on our flight to Chile for a couple of hours and have just received word that we will be stopping in Mendoza, Argentina and not in Santiago, Chile due to inclement weather. We are headed to Santiago to play some exhibition matches against some top Chilean rugby squads. The date is Thursday, October, 12 1972 and we are hoping to be in Santiago by the end of the day and don’t want to be flying on the unlucky Friday the thirteenth. I am Roberto Canessa, a 19 year old medical student and graduate from the Sella Maris College, in which I played rugby and joined their alumni rugby team the Old Christians Rugby team.

Log 2- We arrived in Mendoza around lunchtime yesterday and the weather never actually

The turbulence kept getting worse and worse, but no one truly seemed to care till we noticed how close we were to the mountains. Then the plane started shaking and rattling like it was about to fall apart, then, we scraped into a massive structure that ripped the roof off with other things and it was all in an instant. We then, glided over the snow layers and were halted abruptly by a snow buildup. There were dead or injured people everywhere, some 27 people were still alive from the 45 we had before the wreckage. I had some no little to no injuries beside some scrapes, and I knew I would be alright, but some had many bruises and lacerations, while a few had broken bones. It is only a few days after the crash and Marcelo seems to be our leader, he organized retrieving and healing the wounded, where myself and Zerbino were the “doctors” and assessed all of the surviving passengers, most of which surprisingly only suffered minor injuries which we treated, but some had arm and leg wounds which we advised them to ice in the snow. We thought Nando was going to be dead soon, but he slowly recovered, his sister Susy and his friend Panchito were definitely done for, either internal bleeding or brain damage, either way we couldn’t help. Fernando Vasquez seemed to be alright earlier when I checked, but I couldn’t recognize his severed leg through his clothes and assumed he

They told us they would be back before dark, but late in the day we saw them far up the mountain and we knew they wouldn’t make it back in time, so we camped for the night and hoped for the best. We woke up and watched out for them, and eventually we spotted them moving down and cheered as they did. When they finally reached us they were beat, from the unforgiving cold night, to the steepness of the slopes, it was all they could handle. Ever since then we have been planning for a real escape that was well thought through and would be our best shot at surviving. The group chose four of us that would go, Nando, Fito, Numa, and myself would be the “Expeditionaries”, so they called us, who would find civilization. Soon after, they began giving us larger rations, better sleeping spots, and better clothes to suit us for the trip. A couple days later, the worst happened, while we were sleeping an avalanche came over us all but Roy Harley jolted up at the sound of it and was hip deep in snow, he soon realized that we would all suffocate if he didn’t save us lying feet beneath the snow. I thought I was a dead man till I saw him uncover my face, but still with great pressure on my chest from the ice. I was soon rescued from the icy grave,and we all began