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On the 62nd day, Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Vizintin, set out to the west, where they suspected they would find Chile, they brought with them a sleeping bag made from the planes insulation and a ration of food, for this expedition, they would have to climb the high mountains, something they were ill prepared to do. When the sun would start to disappear behind the mountains around dusk, they would stop and setup camp, they slept in the giant sleeping back that kept them warm through the night. After 3 days of climbing Nando saw that their food was dwindling and they still had farther to climb, they decided to send Vizintin back to the Fairchild and take his remaining ration of food. Using his seat cushion snow shoes as a sled he slid down the mountain, Vizintin made it back in two hours, it had taken 3 days for Canessa, Nando and himself to climb that far. After day 4, the climb was more or less a descent, and after 4 more days of climbing down the mountain, they found green fields at the edge of the snow, a river split through the fields, and beyond that, they saw a rancher, tending his cattle. |
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The rancher was Sergio Catalan, and he saw the disheveled men running around on the other side of the roaring river, at first he thought they were tourists. They screamed for help, the noise of the river almost covering their cries, but Catalan called to them "Tomorrow!" and rode off. They knew that they'd been found they setup camp for the night and in the morning they found the rancher standing on the other side of the river. Catalan threw over a rock with a piece of paper wrapped around it read: |
 Sergio Catalan |
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There is a man coming later that I told him to go. Tell me what you need.
Parrado, in turn, wrote back. He wrapped the paper around the rock again and threw it back over the river. Catalan picked it up and read the note:
I come from a plane that fell in the mountains I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for ten days. I have a friend up there who is injured. In the plane there are still fourteen injured people. We have to get out of here quickly and we don't know how. We don't have any food. We are weak. When are you going to come and fetch us. Please. We can't even walk. Where are we? Catalan pulled a piece of bread from his pocket and threw it over the river to the boys. which they ate promptly. Three hours later, another man on horseback, Armando Serda came riding up, but he was on their side of the river, he brought with him some cheese which he gave to the hungry boys. Serda left to tend to his cattle, but came back an hour later to take Canessa and Nando back to his hut. He informed them that Sergio Catalan, the first man who found them, had gone to inform the authorities of this discovery. Once at the hut they were fed and given comfortable beds. It was December 21, 70 days since they had crashed, 10 since they left the wreck of the Fairchild, and now, they were saved. |
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