visualizing the duct tape over your mouth

“When I went on the expedition with Numa Turcatti and Daniel Maspons, climbing up the mountain, I took the necklaces and chains of each dead person we found. I took every watch, every ID card, all the papers they may have had in their bags: letters, notes, messages, lists, directions, desires, names, loves. I did the same for all of them. I found Carlos Valeta’s chain, which I gave to his parents. I found the letter Gustavo Nicolich wrote to his girlfriend Rosina, the letter from Arturo Nogueira to his parents, his brothers, and his girlfriend. All that history, all those lives which were cut short on the mountain, I carried in a bag. With time that little bag was getting bulky. I had to organise it – here are all the watches and medals, there the letters and documents, the more intimate and personal papers. When that little bag was too full I transferred it to a larger bag, containing the belongings of twenty-nine amputated lives … After [we left], nobody remained up on that icy mountain, nobody at all, because I carried them all away with me.” – “The Dented Cross with the Broken Arm: Gustavo Zerbino” from Society of the Snow: The Definitive Account of the World’s Greatest Survival Story by Pablo Vierci

Esteban Kukuriczka, Francisco Romero & Rafael Federman as THE STRAUCH COUSINS Adolfo 'Fito' Strauch, Daniel Fernández & Eduardo Strauch in LA SOCIEDAD DE LA NIEVE / SOCIETY OF THE SNOW (2023)

“I'm going to tell you the names of the boys. Can you hear me?” “Loud and clear. Just repeat each of the names twice, please. Each name twice.”

José Luis "Coche" Inciarte and Numa Turcatti on May 7th 1972.

I came across this picture yesterday, to my immense surprise. Although they had a mutual friend (Gastón Costemalle), I had no idea that Numa and Coche knew each other before the accident.

In the picture, they're playing soccer for Loyola, a club that now takes Numa's name.

Roberto was extremely weak and suffering from diarrhea. After frantic gestures from Nando (they couldn't hear each other because of how noisy the river was), Sergio signaled that he'd be back in the morning and threw them some bread. "Mañana" (tomorrow) was all Nando and Roberto could hear.

The next day, Sergio threw a small rock across the river with a pencil and a piece of paper wrapped around it. Nando quickly scribbled the following note:

I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. I'm Uruguayan. We've been walking for 10 days. I've got a friend up there who's hurt, with 14 more injured on the plane. We need to get out of here quickly and we don't know how. We don't have food. We are weak. When are you coming to get us? Please. We can't even walk. Where are we? SOS.

Sergio nodded, threw more bread across the river and then travelled for eight hours on horseback to Puente Negro, the closest village, in order to inform police officers. If it wasn't for Nando's note, they probably wouldn't believe him, given how many false alarms there had been in the previous 70 days.

Meanwhile, Nando and Roberto were rescued by farmer Armando Serda, sent by Sergio. He took the pair to a humble house made of wood, where they could sleep and eat plenty of food. There they met another farmer named Enrique González.

Nando, Sergio and Roberto in Los Maitenes (Chile), where the duo was found and rescued.

Nando and Roberto with Sergio in the following years

Some of the survivors with Sergio in the 90s.

Survivors Javier Methol and Coche Inciarte with Sergio (sometime in the 2010s)

“I believe in the god that Roberto has in his head when he comes to heal each of my wounds. In the god that Nando has in his legs when he keeps walking no matter what. I believe in Daniel’s hands…when he cuts the meat. And Fito, when he gives it to us without saying which of our friends it belonged to. That way, we can eat it without…without having to remember their faces. I believe in that God. I believe in Roberto. In Nando. In Daniel. In Fito. And in our fallen friends.”