SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
It was April of 2004 when my good friend Santiago Zapata from HiCue Speakers invited me to the iconic “Teatro Colón” in Bogotá to hear and meet Nando Parrado, one of the survivors of the Andes in 1972. Santiago was going through the very early stages of his speaking agency and I had no clue I would become a professional speaker. Perhaps that event 20 years ago was one of the dots that led me through this path.
The theater was full and Nando’s keynote was outstanding. It was 20 years ago but I can still remember the tone of his voice, his stories and his powerful message. It was very moving. After the event, we went for dinner to Balzac, a wonderful french restaurant in Bogota, and now, without the natural separation of the stage and the stalls, we shared some great wine, a great meal and most importantly, an intimate and wonderful conversation with Nando.
My wife Pilar was with us and we both remember vividly what most impacted us from that conversation: he shared with us, that one of the most difficult moments of the whole thing wasn’t actually the 71 days lost in the freezing andes, but when he returned home, where he had been mourned for more than 2 months, his room was now a guest room, his clothes had been given away and the only thing related to him was a framed portrait of him on a little table on the entrance of the house. He realized that everything was exactly the same, nothing had changed; “the newspaper arrived at the same time, the milk was delivered by the same person as usual, everyone had their jobs and their routines”. He once thought he was the center of all, the protagonist and suddenly realized that without him, everything as he knew it, just kept on.
Many years later, in 2014 when I was writing my book, I reached our to Nando as I wanted to include part of his adventure on it. He was generous with his time and gave me more details so that I could write the following lines:
Nando Parrado and his rugby team were on a flight to Chile on October 13th, 1972 when they crashed at an elevation of 14,000 feet in the Andes near the Chilean and Argentinian border. Twelve passengers died on impact or soon after.
The survivors were physically and emotionally devastated by the crash, but they were determined to recover and work together in order to survive until rescue teams arrived. Of course, just remaining sane was difficult, considering the trauma they had suffered and the harsh environmental conditions in the frozen mountains. Temperatures often dipped down as low as -43 degrees Fahrenheit in the area, and it was in the midst of snow season.
One of the survivors, Roberto Canessa, assumed leadership of the group, and began preparations to prevent an even larger disaster. He proposed plans to solve their desperate issues regarding sleep, food, and drinkable water. He also assembled tools and utensils to help them endure the cold and facilitate movement over the snow, all while constantly working to keep everyone in high spirits. They managed to use a small radio to tune into a radio station and stay up-to-date with news about the rescue teams. After eight days of following the search, they listened with horror as the news announced the rescue mission had been cancelled due to the low probability of finding any survivors. To make matters worse, eight more people died a few nights later when a snow avalanche crashed into the fuselage of the plane, which was where the group had been sleeping.
The entire party naturally felt devastated after these terrible events, but it was none other than Roberto Canessa who crumpled emotionally and fell into despair. Up until that moment, he had been the pillar of morale who had managed to resourcefully and creatively lead the team and maintain the hope that they would survive their ordeal. Without his leadership, lethargy, chaos, and hopelessness began to infect the survivors, and many decided to give up and accept their inevitable deaths.
Nando Parrado reacted to fill the leadership void and ensure the group’s survival, and his heroic efforts kept the situation from spiraling out of control. He made sure to micromanage every decision, from the simplest tasks to the most complex. When he felt the group’s morale had recovered to the point they wouldn’t collapse without his presence, he made a desperate but necessary choice. Parrado decided to take two trusted friends and search for help, as it had become clear that nobody was searching for them. Fourteen people were still alive, and he was determined to rescue them all from that frozen hell.
Ten days later – and 72 days after the accident – they had walked 55 kilometers through the snowy mountains. Suddenly, in the distance, they saw a person with a horse across a river. They tried to yell, but the combination of their weakened bodies and the noise from the running water kept their voices from reaching the man. When the stranger finally noticed them in their desperate state, he threw a stone tied to a piece of paper and a pencil across the river, and with whatever little energy he had left in him, Nando wrote:
I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. I am from Uruguay. We have been walking for ten days. There are fourteen wounded people on the plane. We need to get out of here soon and we don’t know how. We have no food. We are weak. When is someone going to look for us up there? Please, we can’t even walk. Where are we?
This message quickly made it to the right hands, and a rescue operation was quickly organized. With Nando Parrado’s help, the rescue team found the fourteen survivors, who started jumping up and down and screaming with joy when the rescue helicopters arrived.
Forming teams, leading them, and gaining the acceptance of those being led are skills that anyone with an entrepreneurial attitude needs to master. Developing these skills will take you far, while ignoring them will ensure failure.
A few nights ago, we saw Society of the Snow, a newly released film by Netflix that tells this incredible story. It has been nominated to 4 Academy Awards categories: best international feature (for Spain), makeup and hairstyling, original score and visual effects. Since its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, it has been gaining critical momentum.
Wow! what an amazing movie. I truly encourage you to see it and reach your own conclusions and learnings. I take with me how grit and bravery can truly make the impossible possible.
If you want to book Nando Parrado, please reach out to GDA Speakers. You won’t regret having Nando at your next event.