Desultory Thoughts

“We were beginning to starve. But of course, there was food on the mountain, as near as the bodies of the dead lying outside the fuselage. When my mind finally crossed that line, it did so with an impulse so primitive it shocked me…”

Some years ago I was strolling through the halls of the Student Union of Salt Lake Community College, where the latest film releases were regularly screened. Most of the time I would walk past the screening area on my way to class, taking little interest in what was being shown. But one movie caught my eye- 1993’s Alive, a movie based on the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed high in the snowy Andes. A handful of teammates survived the crash and miraculously made it for 72 days by cannibalizing the bodies of their dead comrades.

I’m a regular reader of Outside Magazine, partly because I’m a sucker for ads for cool (and insanely overpriced) outdoor gear- which I’ll never have the budget to purchase, but which I gawk over nonetheless. But Outside’s articles also tend to be excellent, and this May’s issue features an exclusive look at the true story of what’s come to be known as “the Andes flight disaster” through the eyes of Fernando Parrado, a team member who lost both his mother and sister in the crash, and who trekked 10 days to find help that led to rescue of the others.

The story of the crash, its aftermath, and the rescue expedition is absolutely amazing. It is underscored by the underlying theme of man’s uncowering will to survive despite all odds. The bravery of Parrado and the 15 other survivors (out of 45 original passengers) is undisputable. Yet the part of the story I find my mind constantly returning to is the group’s decision to survive on the flesh of the dead.

“My gaze fell on the slowly healing leg wound of a young man lying near me. The center of the wound was moist and raw, and there was a crust of dried blood at the edges. I could not stop looking at that crust, and as I smelled the faint scent of blood in the air, I felt my appetite rising.”

Interestingly, while Parrado describes the decision to cannibalize the dead as heart-wrenching and sickening, once that line is crossed, he rarely mentions it. When he does, he refers to it almost casually. Taboo is shattered and human flesh becomes simply, meat.

It’s probably disrespectful to single out that one facet of the story for scrutiny. After all, the decision to resort to cannibalism was not made lightly. It should be noted as well that every one of the 16 survivors have gone on to live extremely normal and successful lives in spite of this experience.

But it’s the poignantly disturbing aspect of cannibalism that makes the story so impossibly mind-boggling to me. For the life of me I can’t imagine a situation where I would resort to eating human flesh to survive- much less the flesh of a friend. But then again that’s surely the mindset those rugby players had as they boarded Flight 571 for a match in Santiago, Chile.

Like most feature magazine articles, this one breaks off after a few pages and continues later in the magazine (the harrowing tale is separated here by car ads and the 2006 Surf Guide). The article is full of pictures taken by the survivors during the ordeal. Curiously, the pictures show smiling survivors as they appear to lounge around the crashed fuselage, their only shelter. One wonders why they even bothered to take pictures. I must conclude that they were simply making the most of their hopeless and bewildered state, wanting to leave some memory of optimism for whoever would find the pictures. Several days after the crash, they were able to repair the plane’s radio receiver just in time to hear a news report that the search effort had been called off. There they are with no food, no supplies, less-than-sufficient winter clothing, all alone in the snowy Andes with no hope for survival.

Smiling for the camera.

One shot featured in the article (posted above) particularly illustrates the bleak realities these survivors faced. It is a photo of several smiling survivors posing outside the fuselage, much like many similar photos I have taken with friends on camping trips. But to the side of the group is a water bottle and what appears to be a human spinal column that looks like it’s been picked clean.

Though the photo appears in the print version of the magazine, it is noticeably absent from the online version of the article. An online search for this picture yielded several similar shots, all with the object in question cut out.

Certainly the bravery of these survivors should not be diminished by their life-saving decision to eat the dead. But perhaps it’s that unfathomable aspect of the story that demonstrates the austere rawness of these events. Perhaps it’s the contrast- desperation versus smiles, life from death- that draws us in and leads us along a path of determination and inspiration. I commend Parrado and his teammates for their toughness and admire them greatly. The Outside article is actually an excerpt of an upcoming book by Parrado- Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home- which I probably won’t purchase (gotta save up for those $250 hiking poles featured on page 68), but will definitely check out from the library. But from the excerpt in Outside, it looks like a good read.