AIRPLANE CRASH SURVIVORS FOUND TO BE IN BETTER MENTAL HEALTH THAN NON-CRASH AIR TRAVELERS IN THE LONG RUN, STUDY FINDS

Surfing the web, I found published this American Psychological Association article. I don’t know if it is very scientific or not, but it says something I always wondered about: why is that after going through such an ordeal, we are in such good mental health? How is that we don’t show any long term psychological effects like anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress? How is that we don’t have nightmares? How is that we were able to put the mountain into our backpack and continue our life journey? I’m sure that this is not what our people expected when we were rescued after 72 days surviving in the mountain. They probably thought that we were going to carry our tragedy painfully through all our lives. But, we didn't.

Actually, the article doesn’t explain why. It simply states what I always said: airplane crash survivors can do OK, and we are doing OK, and living normal lives! I have explained our recuperation and mental health as part of our resilient process, but maybe there are other explanations too. Who knows.........

SUPERVIVIENTES DE ACCIDENTES AEREOS SE ENCUENTRAN CON MEJOR SALUD MENTAL QUE VIAJEROS FRECUENTES QUE NO HAN TENIDO ACCIDENTES, DICE UN ESTUDIO

Navegando en la web, encontré este artículo publicado por la Sociedad Americana de Psicología. No se si el artículo es muy científico o no, pero trata sobre algo que yo siempre me pregunté. Cómo es que después de haber pasado por semejante tragedia gozamos de tan buena salud mental? Cómo es que en general no mostramos ninguna clase de efectos sicológicos de largo plazo como ansiedad, depresión u otros efectos post traumáticos? Cómo es que ni siquiera tenemos pesadillas con la montaña? Cómo es que la hemos podido meter en nuestras mochilas y continuar el viaje de nuestras vidas? Estoy seguro que esto no era lo que esperaba nuestra gente cuando nos rescataron después de 72 días sobreviviendo en la montaña. Estoy seguro de que pensaron que íbamos a cargar una pesada y dolorosa mochila durante toda nuestras vidas. Pero no fué así.

En realidad, el artículo no contesta porqué. Simplemente constata que los sobrevivientes de accidentes aéros pueden andar bien, y nosotros hemos andado muy bien, y viviendo vidas normales. Yo explico nuestra capacidad de recuperación y salud mental como parte de un proceso de resiliencia. Pero puede haber otras explicaciones también. Quién sabe.....

Air Crash in Madrid /Accidente Aéreo en Madrid

I was interviewed by Cadena Ser from Spain a day after the air crash of the Spanair plane in Barajas airport- Madrid, in which 156 people were killed and only 19 survived.

The Spanish media was completely focused on the accident and had been interviewing the relatives of the casualties and some of the survivors the whole day. The ambiance was doom and the whole of Spain was mourning the accident.

With the intention of bringing some comfort and hope to the injured survivors and their relatives the reporters in Cadena Ser contacted survivors of other plane crashes.

They first interviewed a priest, whose name I can’t recall, who is a survivor of an airplane crash, also in the Barajas Airport in 1984. In that accident around 45 out of 85 passengers survived the collision between an Iberia plane while taking off and a smaller airplane that crossed the runway.

The priest said that he experienced severe burns in most of his body and that his recuperation in the hospital was the worst part of his experience. Many times he wondered if life was worth enough to go through those sufferings but that his faith in God allowed him to put up with his pains.

They also interviewed a lady called Mercedes Ramirez from Texas, who some time ago survived an airplane crash in the US. This time the plane was flying and for some unexpected reason the plane went out of control and finally crashed on ground. Miraculously she survived although she lost her parents in that accident.

Then it was our turn to speak. And I say our turn because my survivor-brother Carlitos Paez was on the radio, too. Carlitos explained what had happened to us and told our story in a few words. He also said that our story is the most formidable story of survival and that it transcends our personal stories, which is something I completely agree with. He was also very candid when asked a recommendation for the relatives of the survivors and he said , “just be there, there is no need for words“.

I spoke my words too, I said that I was very touched by the tragedy and that I hoped the survivors of this accident would be able to go back to their normal lives, to their own projects and live the life they were going to live before they had their accident. Which is what I did, for 36 years my ordeal was not an issue for me. I never dreamt with our accident, I never had a nightmare with it either and it never popped into my life. I have been able to live a normal life and I am very proud of it. ( Carlitos joked that ‘his’ life has never been a normal one!!!) I also said that I have the fears of anyone else when flying on a plane, but I enjoy flying. And told them to give the survivors and their relatives, time, the right time to process their tragedy, to heal their wounds and start to live their normal lives once again.


If you want to listen the interview, click here.


Accidente Aéreo en Madrid

Me entrevistaron en la Cadena Ser de España el día después del accidente aéreo del avión de Spanair en el aeropuerto de Barajas - Madrid, en el cual murieron 156 personas y sólo 19 han sobrevivido.

La prensa Española sólo hablaba de eso y estuvieron entrevistando a los familiares de los accidentados durante todo el día. El ambiente estaba muy triste y toda España estaba haciendo el duelo por lo ocurrido.

Con la intención de confortar y dar esperanzas a los familiares de los que habían sobrevivido y levantar un poco el ánimo, los reporteros de Cadena Ser contactaron a sobrevivientes de otros accidentes aéreos.

Primero entrevistaron a un cura, cuyo nombre no recuerdo, quien también había sobrevivido a un accidente aéreo también en Barajas, pero en 1984. En este accidente, cerca de 45 de 85 pasajeros sobrevivieron el choque entre un avión de Iberia que estaba despegando y un avión más pequeño que cruzó la pista de despegue.

El cura dijo que sufrió quemaduras en casi todo su cuerpo y que la recuperación en el hospital fue la peor parte. Muchas veces se preguntó si tenía sentido pasar por tan horribles sufrimientos, pero que su fe en Dios le permitió pasar por ellos.

También entrevistaron a una señora llamada Mercedes Ramirez de Texas, quien algún tiempo atrás sobrevivió un accidente aéreo en los Estados Unidos. Esta vez ella estaba en vuelo y por alguna razón el avión quedó fuera de control y se precipitaron al suelo. Milagrosamente ella sobrevivió aunque perdió a sus padres en ese accidente.

Después fue nuestro turno. Y digo nuestro turno porque mi hermano-sobreviviente Carlitos Paez estaba en el aire también. Carlitos explicó lo que nos había pasado a nosotros y contó nuestra historia . Dijo también que nuestra historia es la más formidable historia de sobreviviencia y que ella trasciende nuestras historias personales, con lo que estoy totalmente de acuerdo. Y estuvo muy correcto cuando le preguntaron qué les podemos recomendar a los parientes de los sobrevivientes: "Nada, estén ahí, no es tiempo de palabras."

También dije lo mío, dije que estaba muy conmovido por la tragedia y que esperaba que los sobrevivientes puedan volver a sus vidas normales, a sus proyectos, a la vida que iban a hacer si no tenían el accidente. Que es lo que yo hice. Por 36 años la tragedia no fue un tema para mi, nunca soñé con el accidente, nunca tuve pesadillas con él ni tampoco estuvo apareciendo en mi vida habitual. Pude reconstruir mi vida y vivir una vida normal, y estoy muy orgulloso de ello. (Carlitos bromeó que él nunca había vivido una vida normal). También dije que tengo los miedos de cualquiera cuando viajo en aviones, pero que me encanta volar. Y les dije que le den a los sobrevientes tiempo, el tiempo y apoyo necesario para sanar sus heridas y para vovler a hacer sus vidas normales.

Si quieres escuchar la entrevista, haz click aquí.

Fear to Fly? / Miedo a Volar?

Did we have fear in the mountains?

A journalist in Spain asked me what fear meant to a guy like me. A guy like me? What did he mean?

I remember having fear on our rescue, when the helicopters were trying to pass over the summit of the mountains. The wind blew very strong and we almost didn´t make it.

That was a terrible flight and I remember feeling fear. And I am sure I felt fear just before we crashed in the Andes, but that fear, I don´t remember it. It has been blocked out.

Aside from that, there was not room for fear. You just can´t spend 72 days feeling fear. You get used to living on the verge of death. It just becomes part of your life.

Happily, now I do experience fear as anyone else, I am not vaccinated against fear. On my last trip to Beirut, at some moment the plane shaked like hell and I panicked. But once the tremble was over, I enjoyed the flight and slept like a baby.


Miedo a Volar?

Tuvimos miedo en la montaña?

Un periodista en España me preguntó qué significaba el miedo para un tipo como yo. Para un tipo como yo? Qué habrá querido decir?

Recuerdo haber sentido miedo en el momento del rescate, cuando los helicópteros en los que viajaban trataban de pasar la cima de las montañas. Soplaba mucho viento y casi no pudimos pasar.

Ese fue un vuelo terrible y recuerdo haber sentido miedo. Y también debo haber sentido miedo justo antes de que chocáramos en la montaña, pero ese miedo yo no lo tengo presente, lo tengo borrado.

Aparte de eso, no había lugar para el miedo. Uno no puede estar 72 días sintiendo miedo. Uno se acostumbra a vivir al límite de la muerte. Se transforma en parte de tu vida.

Por suerte, ahora puedo sentir miedo como cualquier otra persona. No estoy vacunado contra el miedo. En mi último viaje a Beirut, el avión se movió muchísimo y yo sentí pánico. Pero una vez que el mal momento pasó, disfruté del vuelo y dormí como un niño.

An Article about me in a Stanford Magazine/ Un artícluo sobre mi en una Revista de Stanford

The Stanford Business Magazine in its May issue, published quite a nice article about my visit to Stanford last December. It basically covers my presentation to alumni and also an hour long interview before my talk. (Click here to read)

In the same issue, Julie Kaufman, one of my class mates wrote in her class notes:

“Most likely you have read in this issue about Pedro Algorta´s ordeal in the Andes 35 years ago. Our reunion, and specifically Mike O´Brien´s moving talk about his 9/11 experience, was a factor in Pedro´s talking openly about it. After beginning to talk about this at our reunion last summer, Pedro came back to the U.S. at the request of the GSB late in the fall. He first visited Mike O´Brien´s family in New Jersey, speaking at Mike´s church. Then he headed to Boston and onto Dallas, where he spent time with Juan Williams and Victor Arias and spoke at their church as well. Finally he returned to the GSB, where he addressed a group of students and alumni (many from our class) about his experiences as part of the Lifelong Learning Program. He used photos and video from 1972 to show where the survivors lived for 72 days. This included part of a news broadcast filmed shortly after their rescue. Pedro´s talk focused on leadership and survival. He humbly believes that any of us would have acted as he and his friends did under similar circumstances. He has been writing a blog, which I encourage you to read.”

Thank you very much Julie for your kind words.


La Revista Stanford Business

En el número de mayo de la revista de la Escuela de Negocios de la Universidad de Stanford publicaron un artículo bastante bueno acerca de la visita que hice a Stanford en Diciembre. Basicamente cubre la presentación que hice a los ex alumnos y una entrevista que me hicieron antes.

En esa misma revista, en la sección "Notas de las Clases", Julie Kaufman, una compañera de promoción escribió:

"Seguramente han leído en esta misma revista sobre la tragedia de los Andes que Pedro Algorta atravezó hace 35 años. Nuestra reunión, y especificamente la conmovedora charla de Mike O´Brien hablando de su experiencia del 9/11, fue un factor para que Pedro ahora hablara abiertamente sobre su tema. Despuès de empezar a hablar sobre ello este verano en nuestra reunión, Pedro volviò a los Estados Unidos invitado por la Escuela de Negocios de Stanford este otoño. Anteriormente, visitó a Mike O´Brien y su familia en New Jersey, donde hablò en la iglesia de Mike. Después fue a Boston y a Dallas, donde estuvo unos días con Juan Williams y Victor Arias donde también habló en sus iglesias. Finalmente volvió a Stanford donde se dirigió a un grupo de estudiantes y ex alumnos (muchos de nuestra clase) compartiendo su experiencia como parte del Programa de Educación Continua. Él usó fotos y videos tomadas en 1972 para mostrar las conciciones en la que sobrevivieron por 72 días. Esto incluyó también un pequeño film realizado con las tomas de los noticieros de la época. La charla de Pedro se enfocó en las lecciones de liderazgo y la sobrevivencia. Él humildemente cree que cualquiera de nosotros en circunstancias parecidas hubiera actuado de la forma en que él y sus amigos lo hicieron. Ha comenzado a escribir un blog que recomiendo leer."

Muchas gracias Julie por tan lindas palabras. (Hacer clic aquí para leer artículo en español)

The 16 Survivors/ Los 16 Sobrevivientes

Many times people ask me about my group. Are we still friends? Do we get together very often? Do we like each other?

And the truth is that although I cannot say I am a friend of all of them, I recognize belonging to a same group and I have a very special warm feeling for them. We have a common story, we share our ordeal, and we know what was like living up there in the mountains. The mountain and the follow up of our ordeal keep us together.

But what is significant is that we are all alive, reasonable healthy and living quite normal lives. Nevertheless, I have been basically marginal to the group for a while, I moved to another country just after the crash and I have not been at the core of the group for many years.

Does that mean that I dislike my survivor-brothers? No, I like them very much; it is only that I have lived a different life in another country. Although now, as I started to talk, I am feeling closer to the group.

But our group was not friendly at all times. We are a group that confronted a tremendous adversity and we gathered strengths from adversity to fight for life. And we fought hard for our individual and group survival. But we are just human beings. We had our problems up there, and no wonder we have them now in our real life. But we all recognize to be part of the group, we all know that we did it all together and that no one would have made it by himself.

Now we don’t have a common enemy to fight. There is no common mountain to climb, we all have grown up into different life projects and the group is more dispersed. Isn’t that normal?


Los 16 Sobrevivientes

Mucha gente me pregunta por nuestro grupo. Seguimos siendo amigos? Cuán seguido nos vemos? Nos queremos entre nosotros?

Y la verdad es que no puedo decir que soy amigo de todos ellos aunque reconozco pertenecer al mismo grupo. Tenemos una historia en común, compartimos nuestra tragedia, sabemos lo que fue vivir allí arriba en la montaña. La montaña y lo que siguió a ella nos ha unido y nos junta.

Pero lo importantes es que todos estamos vivos, razonablemente sanos para nuestra edad y viviendo vidas ordinarias. De todas maneras, yo he estado básicamente afuera del grupo, me he ido a vivir a otro país después del accidente y por muchos años no he estado en el corazón del grupo.

Eso quiere decir que no quiera a mis hermanos sobrevivientes? No, en absoluto, los quiero un montón. Sólo que he vivido una vida diferente en otro país. Pero ahora estoy volviendo.

Pero nuestro grupo no siempre fue amigable. Somos gente que enfrentó una terrible adversidad y tomamos fuerzas de esa adversidad para luchar por nuestras vidas. Y luchamos fuerte por sobrevivir cada uno y colectivamente. Pero somos seres humanos, tuvimos nuestras diferencias allí arriba y por supuesto las tenemos ahora en nuestra vida actual. Pero reconocemos ser parte del mismo grupo, sabemos lo que juntos hicimos allí arriba y que ninguno se hubiera salvado por si solo.

Ahora no tenemos un enemigo común para pelear. No hay una montaña común para enfrentar, todos hemos seguido distintos proyectos de vida y estamos más dispersos. No es eso lógico?

My participation in the presentation of Stranded. (The Documentary) 2

Stranded was finally shown in Buenos Aires at the Independent Film Festival. (Bafici). My survivor-brothers Vizintín, Coche and Methol came from Montevideo and we all went to present the movie at the festival. The film is really good, it has improved very much since I saw the raw rail some time ago and it was very well accepted by the audience.

At the end, we all four brother-survivors answered questions. This was the first time I tooke questions with a group of survivors, and the truth is that I felt a little weird. As if I had not done it before!!!! The first question I answered was about the influence of rugby in our survival. Vizintín said it was very important ( and I hope he will say why if he comments on this post). But then I said it really didn´t matter. What mattered was that we were mostly young athletes, but if we were soccer or rugby players, educated or not, Catholics or with no religion at all, I am sure that the outcome would have been the same. Because after some days, we were just human beings, following our most basic survival instincts. And as I always say, anyone would have done the same, and probably survived.

The other question was about other survival experiences. Ours is unique, but human history is full of incredible ordeals. Shackleton spent 2 years in Antarctica hopping from one iceberg to another. During the wars, there were similar situations with people resorting to cannibalism to survive. And if we go back into history, there must be lots of hidden stories of sailors and conquerors that sailed the seas without knowing when they would arrive at a place, and many times got stranded in the middle of the sea.


Vengo de un avión….. (El Documental) 2

Vengo de un avión... se estrenó finalmente en Buenos Aires, en el Festival de Cine Independiente (Bafici): Mis hermanos-sobrevivientes Vizintín, Coche y Methol vinieron desde Montevideo y fuimos todos a presentar la película en el festival. El film me pareció muy bueno, ha mejorado mucho desde que ví la versión sin terminar y fue muy bien aceptado por la audiencia.

Al final, los cuatro hermanos-sobrevivientes pasamos al frente y contestamos preguntas. Fue la primera vez que contesté preguntas con un grupo de sobrevivientes, y la verdad es que me sentía un poco raro. Como si nunca hubiera contestado preguntas!!! La primera que contesté fue sobre el significado del rugby en nuestra sobrevivencia. Vizintín dijo que fue muy importante, ( y espero que se anime a explicar porqué en un comentario en este blog). Pero yo dije que no había importado. Que lo que importaba era que éramos la mayoría jóvenes y atletas, pero si hubiéramos sido jugadores de fútbol o de rugby, con o sin educación, católicos o aún sin ninguna religión, estoy seguro que el resultado hubiera sido el mismo. Porque después de unos días, éramos simplemente personas humanas siguiendo nuestros más básicos instintos de supervivencia. Y como siempre digo, cualquiera hubiera hecho lo mismo, y probablemente sobrevivido.

La otra pregunta fue sobre otras experiencias de sobreviviencia. La nuestra es única en muchos sentidos, pero la historia humana está llena de odiseas increíbles. Shackleton pasó 2 años en la Antárdida saltando de un iceberg a otro. En las guerras, hubo situaciones similares en la que la gente recurrió al canibalismo para sobrevivir. Y si nos remontamos atrás en la historia, seguro que debe haber un lado oscuro en las historias de los marinos y conquistadores que navegaban los mares sin saber cuando llegarían a algún lugar, y muchas veces quedaban en el mar a la deriva.

Katrina (2): Our case as Collective Leadership

Our survival on the Andes is a case of “Collective Leadership”. There was no one person that accomplished all the leadership tasks and we didn´t have “a Leader”. On the contrary, we were a group of peers figuring out how to get out from the mountains, and everyone contributed according to his capabilities at that time. In some cases, one of us would “step into the void” and make significant contributions; sometimes it was participating in a discussion and offering a new point of view, or giving an inspiring insight, or doing some generous or heroic act, or making an insuperable funny remark or improving the way we did things in order to save energies or provide relief to the injured and ill. The leadership tasks were performed in a collective way.

Some of our friends stood up with a more clear vision of what it was needed to be done, others were important to keep up the morale of the group, or put a lot of energies trying to improve the way we lived up there, or spent a great deal of their time making small excursions to find where we were and to pick up the remains of the plane, and other did the heroic and incredible task of walking for 10 days across the Andes in search of help.

As the Katrina analyst said, in crisis situations, systems collapse and there is no one individual person or organization that can cope with the enormous amount of work that performing the leadership task entails. In crisis situations, collective leadership does emerge, and we are clearly an example of it.


Katrina (2)

Nuestra sobrevivencia en los Andes es un caso de “Liderazgo Colectivo”. No hubo una sola persona que pudiera desarrollar todas las tareas del liderazgo y no tuvimos “El Líder”. Todo lo contrario, éramos un grupo de pares ingeniándonos para ver cómo salíamos de las montañas, y todos contribuyeron de acuerdo a sus posibilidades del momento. En algunos casos, uno de nosotros daba “un paso al vacío” y hacía grandes contribuciones, a veces era participando en alguna discusión y ofreciendo un nuevo punto de vista, o haciendo un acto generoso o heroico, o haciendo un comentario jocoso insuperable, o mejorando la forma en la que hacíamos las cosas para ahorrar energías y dar alivio a los que estaban heridos o enfermos. La función del liderazgo fue desarrollada en forma colectiva.

Algunos de nuestros amigos se pararon con una visión más clara de lo que había que hacer, otros eran importantes para mantener la motivación del grupo, o pusieron muchas energías tratando de mejorar la forma en que hacíamos las cosas, o estuvieron mucho tiempo haciendo pequeñas excursiones para determinar donde estábamos y recoger los que encontraban del avión y otros hicieron la heroica e increíble tarea de caminar 10 días por los Andes en busca de ayuda.

Como dicen los analistas del Katrina, en situaciones de crisis, los sistemas colapsan y no existe un solo individuo o una sola organización que puede hacerse cargo del enorme trabajo que implica desarrollar la tarea del liderazgo. En situaciones de crisis, emerge el liderazgo colectivo, y nosotros somos un claro ejemplo de ello.

Katrina (1): Crisis Leadership.

I just read a “White Paper” from the Center for Creative Leadership addressing the type of leadership that emerges in a crisis situation like the one produced by the hurricane Katrina. And it is amazing how close their findings are to the leadership situations we experienced during the days we spent in the Andes.

The article says that in Leadership Crisis, what matters is that the “leadership function” gets accomplished, no matter by whom or by how many, but that setting direction, creating alignment and building commitment has to be done, anyway. It is a matter of “what” not of “who”.

It also says that in these situations leadership can be happening in a group of people who are discussing what to do and, although unsure, they are figuring out. When disasters do occur, people are thrown into a peer context, and everyone is forced to take decision regardless wherever they are on the leadership structure. In crisis situations, systems collapse, plans are insufficient, the picture is distorted, time is compressed, authority is limited and limiting and new leadership emerges. The formal leadership authorities are many times overwhelmed by reality.

I am impressed how much this describes our situation in the Andes. We were peers, we didn´t know what to do, we were not prepared for such an ordeal, we were let by ourselves and we had just to figure out how to survive and to get out of the mountains. And I don’t want to imply that some of us didn´t play a more significant role than others in the Andes, but everyone contributed according to its possibilities, and we all mattered. Even those who were ill or injured played a significant role; just taking care of themselves was important for the group.

Obviously, this has an impact on the type of contingency plans everyone should have for disasters. On top of protocols and contingency plans, that you must have, it is crucial to build more communication skills, team working capabilities and networking. And when you plan for the worse, there will always be another worse scenario.


Katrina (1)

Acabo de leer un borrador de trabajo del Centro para el Liderazgo Creativo ocupándose del tipo de liderazgo que emergió en una situación de crisis como el huracán Katrina. Es increíble cuan cerca están sus conclusiones sobre el tipo de situaciones de liderazgo que nosotros experimentamos durante los días que pasamos en los Andes.

El artículo dice que en situaciones de crisis de liderazgo, lo que importa es que la función de liderazgo sea realizada, no importa por quien ni por cuantos, pero que establecer los objetivos, crear el alineamiento y construir el compromiso tiene que ser hecho de alguna manera. No es un tema de quien, sino de qué.

También dice que estas situaciones el liderazgo puede estar ocurriendo en un grupo de personas que discuten qué hacer y, aún inseguras, le encuentran la vuelta. Cuando ocurren desastres, la gente se encuentra en una situación de pares, y todos son obligados a tomar decisiones sin importar que lugar ocupaban en la estructura formal de liderazgo. Porque en situaciones de crisis, los sistemas colapsan, los planes son insuficientes, la visión general está distorsionada, el tiempo está comprimido, la autoridad está limitada y limita y obviamente emergen nuevos líderes. Los líderes formales muchas veces son sobrepasados por los acontecimientos.

Me impresiona, cuanto esto describe nuestra situación en los Andes. Éramos pares, no sabíamos qué hacer, no estábamos preparados para la tragedia, nos habían dejado solos y tuvimos que ingeniarnos para salir de las montañas. Con esto no quiero implicar que no hubo algunos que jugaron un rol más importante que otros en los Andes, pero aún aquellos que estaban enfermos o heridos tenían un rol significativo que jugar. Simplemente ocuparse de ellos mismos era importante para el grupo.

Obviamente, esto impacta en el tipo de planes de continencia que todos deberíamos tener para emergencias. Además de tener protocolos planes de contingencia, que hay que tener, no hay que olvidarse de desarrollar más habilidades de comunicación, capacidad de trabajo en equipo y relaciones. Y cuando planificas para el peor escenario, siempre puede haber otro peor.

My Old Friends/ Mis Viejos Amigos

I also think on all my friends I had at the time when we crashed in the mountains and whom I haven’t seen any more. After our rescue, I stayed for some weeks in Uruguay and then went back to live in Argentina with my parents and started a new life almost from scratch. This was a turning point in my life, it is one of my crucibles, as I decided to change and start again in Argentina. But many of my old friends, either in Uruguay, Chile or even in Argentina, who had cried for me when they thought me dead when we crashed in the Andes didn´t have the chance to be with me as I became again a normal guy. They probably understood that I would be better off if they allowed me a fresh start. And they seldom came to see me. Probably I shoved them away with a not very friendly attitude from my part.

They respected my silence and helped me reconstruct my life. I appreciated that very much because it allowed me to close my wound, put the mountain into my backpack and look ahead. Three months after our rescue, I entered the University without saying who I was, what had happened to me. And one year later, I met Noelle, with whom I married and got three great children. But today I think on my old friends, José, Jorge, Pancho, Cristián, Walter, Alito, Pedro, Ana Luisa, Ana, Elina, and many others, who have also their part in my story and I have listened to them very little what they have to say.


Mis Viejos Amigos

También pienso en todos mis amigos de la época en que nos caímos en la montaña y a quienes no he visto más. Después del rescate, me quedé por algunas semanas en Uruguay y después me vine a vivir a la Argentina donde vivían mis padres y empecé una vida casi de cero. Esto fue un punto de quiebre en mi vida, una de mis encrucijadas, el decidir empezar de nuevo. Pero muchos de mis viejos amigos, ya sea en Uruguay, Chile o también en Argentina, que habían llorado por mi cuando me había caído en los Andes, no tuvieron la oportunidad de estar conmigo cuando volví a la normalidad. Probablemente entendieron que tenían que dejarme probar empezar de nuevo. Y casi no vinieron a verme. Probablemente los alejé con mi actitud poco amigable de mi parte.

Ellos aceptaron mi silencio y me ayudaron a reconstruir mi vida. Eso lo aprecio hoy porque fui capaz de cerrar mi herida, poner la montaña en mi mochila y mirar para adelante. Tres meses después del rescate entré en la Universidad sin decir quién era, qué me había pasado. Y un año después conocí a Noelle, mi esposa, con quien nos casamos y tuvimos tres maravillosos hijos. Pero hoy pienso en mis viejos amigos, José, Jorge, Pancho, Cristián, Walter, Pedro, Ana Luisa, Ana María, Elina y muchos otros, que también han sido parte de mi historia y a quienes he escuchado muy poco lo que tienen para contar.

London Thoughts

The Stanford University people invited me to London to participate in an Alumni meeting. It was a great meeting, extraordinary well organized by Laura Moore and her team. I spent a great week in London.

In the meeting, Prof. Charles O’Reilly presented Stanford’s new curricula and talked about leadership, presenting several vignettes of leaders taking tough decisions. Beforehand, I had made my presentation, which went very well.

As it always is, the best part came with the Q&A and later in the cocktail.


The lessons of the ordeal.

Someone asked me what my accident had meant to me. What I took from it in my day to day life. My easy answer was that I didn’t really know, that I couldn’t tell to what extent our ordeal had affected my life. But that is not really an honest or profound answer. Although it is true that I cannot trace the traits of my personality to what happened in the mountain, it is true that I have learned something from it. And it is about hope, it is about trust, it is about not having all the answers, it is about not having the last word. And up there, we knew that. We knew that even after doing all what we did, after doing all what was humanly possible, we didn’t have the last word. And that is something that I learned. Later in life I fought hard to attain my objectives but once I have fought hard, the result will eventually come if they have to come. We are not the owners of the end results; we only know how hard we can work, because in this life we don’t have everything under control.

Up there in the mountains, we were not sure that we were going to survive; we only knew that we had a chance to survive, and we fought hard for it. God was with us but we didn´t have all the answers. When now I face a crucible, I fight hard, I do what I can, but I know in advance that I can’t control everything. That is hope, it is trust and it gives me an enormous peace of mind.


Motivations

In the cocktail after the presentation, one alumnus asked me if after going through such an ordeal, which required all that adrenaline, I didn´t feel bored with ordinary life. I was shocked with the question; I never tried to imply that an ordinary and balanced life is a boring life. I have been misunderstood. What I mean is that we need to find motivation and meanings in our day to day life, not necessarily in far reaching objectives.

The truth is that after those mountains in the 70´s, I had others to climb, and they all came with their additional doses of adrenaline and challenge. And mountains do come, even as if we don’t look for them. Mountains do appear in life, climbing mountains is what life is all about.

I wonder what type of mountain this guy was aiming to climb. Maybe he was told at school that he should climb the highest of all the mountains. But not all of them are going to get that high, and even those who get to the top, I ´m sure that they see ahead higher steps which we don’t see. But they see them. And the truth is that everyone has to know that the ladder does not always go up, sometimes it is just flat, and it can come down.

Sometimes, people just don’t get me when I say that I am proud to have lived an ordinary life out of an extraordinary episode. We all need to have a meaningful life, contributing from the actual situation of our life, from there we are demanded to live a fruitful and meaningful life. In some cases, just taking care of yourself is what you have to do, it is what some of us did in the mountain.


Giving up.

We were having dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant in London. One of the guys who was with us told me that he heard me saying that people don’t give up, but he himself, having served in the military forces for many years and actually been in the Vietnam war, he saw people giving up.

Yes, it is true, and I know that people commit suicide, and that is really giving up. But what I saw in the mountains, is that as long we thought we had a chance to survive we fought hard to survive and we didn´t give up.

I asked him why people that come from war don’t talk about it as we do about our ordeal. We love talking about it, sometimes we have a compelling need to talk. And the answer was that people coming back from WWII did talk, but people from Vietnam are stigmatized and their experience is not socially welcomed. He said that they talked among themselves.

Thinking twice, I believe war has other ingredients. It is a limit experience and maybe heroic as well, but people are driven into such extreme and unique situations which are difficult to understand by those who were not there.

Piers

I have met my friend Piers Paul Read (Jay) each time I have been to London. He is the author of the book “Alive”. I have been always welcomed to his beautiful house where he and his wife Emily live. I´m very fond of them.

As we always do, we talked about “Alive”. I asked him how he got to write the book, how difficult it was, what the process of writting such a book had been.

He told me that he was approached by Ed Burlingame from Lippincot, at that time a large publishing house, who had read in the media the news of our ordeal. Some of our parents and friends had organized a competitive bid to choose a writer that would guarantee the truth of the story, that would guarantee that the friendship and faith that inspired us in the mountain would emerge from the book, that would respect the memories of the dead, would also avoid scandal and at the same time offer a reasonable check to the survivors. When they came to Uruguay their offer was clearly the best, although not financially. But Piers Paul Reed, a British catholic writer was the winning card.

His first trip to Uruguay was made on February 1973; he met the survivors and friends at a nice welcome party at Carlos Paez´s Casa Pueblo in Punta del Este. He was impressed by the nice welcome in a beautiful mild evening watching the sunset from Casa Pueblo. Then he started to work. I remember we told everything to Piers in very long individual and group interviews. He says that we were very fragile and had a compulsive need to talk. When asked why we were so open to him he wonders if it was because he was not our father, not a priest, not a therapist, just someone that wanted to listen to us. And he indeed was a good listener. I had just heard the tapes of his interviews to me made 35 years ago. I said then nothing different from what I say now about the odyssey. In those tapes, he continuously asked me about my political views and about my understanding of the dynamics of our group.

He went back to London with 80 hours of tapes. And he worked on a big matrix, on one entry he listed all the survivors, and on the other entry he listed the events, and then he started knitting a tremendous patchwork. By the end of that year, he finished his draft and came back to Montevideo to show his manuscript. He says that it was a terrible week; most of us were disappointed with his presentation of our story. According to him, some of us thought that their role in the mountain was not accurately depicted; others said that the spiritual dimension of the ordeal was not there, others said that people in Uruguay were going to be scandalized by all the details that were given on what we fed on. Some even said that the Uruguayan society would stigmatize us and we would have to leave the country. Others even feared the reaction of the relatives of our friends who did not come back. Well, it was very difficult for all of us to be happy with the book at the onset; it is really very difficult to write in just a few pages what the 16 of us went through during our ordeal. But on the overall, I feel he did a great job, I feel that the book conveys a good idea of what happened to us up there.

He told me that the book was published without any changes from the manuscript we read. Just a small caveat was added in the acknowledges of the book:

“………some (of us) felt that the faith and friendship which inspired (us) in the cordillera do not emerge from the book………perhaps, it was beyond the skill of any writer to express our own appreciation of what (we) lived through……………”

And as we all know, his book (and ours too) has been a tremendous world wide success. It has been translated to more than 50 languages, although Piers himself does not recall how many copies of it have been sold.

Piers is very proud of his book, but curiously, one of the few negative critics came from William Golding, the author of the Lord of the Flies, who reviewed Alive for a London magazine some time ago. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes about an hypothetic case in which a group of English schoolboys get stranded in a desert island. The survivors fail to organize themselves and finally turn into savagery. But we did not turn into savagery, we organized ourselves to survive and we made it, and we were always human beings. Maybe Golding didn´t like Piers book because it went against his main hypothesis. Ok, we didn´t degenerate into savagery, is it because we were not pushed that far? Piers says we didn´t and we wouldn’t have turn into savagery, and he is the one person who understands best what happened up there. I have to admit I have not read Golding’s book. I have just added it to my reading list.

How I started to talk/ Como empezé a hablar

The Documentary (again)

For many years, I kept the story of my odyssey just to myself and my family. Only some very close friends heard me talk about it. But not because I had any particular problem to talk about it, I was just very busy working, living through my corporate career and raising my family. I also watched with a hint of disgust my survivor fellows talk about it. At that time I even thought that our story didn´t have too many particular insights.

But things started to change. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but little by little, I found myself talking to small groups of teenagers that would gather around my story. Then, Gonzalo Arijón showed up with his project of a new documentary on the Andes issue. I turned him down, but as he insisted, I went to my brothers and my children to ask them what they thought about me participating in a new documentary. They came back with a surprise to me, they wanted to hear me, they wanted to know what I had to say about the mountain.

I enjoyed participating in Arijón´s project and later in a book by Pablo Vierci, which has not been published yet, in which all 16 survivors give our own view of what happened in the Andes and how we managed through life.

But the fact is that my mountain is coming back to me with incredible strength. When I relate to my mountain I feel enormous energy and vitality, it is when I feel I´m 100% alive. And maybe my message of hope also touches the heart of some people. That is why I talk now.


The Urdimbre

Marcelo Serantes has always shown a keen interest in our experience, and he has always encouraged me to talk about it. He thinks the message is very strong and fits in very well with his strong Christian beliefs. He is very fond of me and I will always cherish his friendship. He introduced me to the Urdimbre people. These are incredible guys. The Urdimbre is an organization that takes care of teenagers coming from very poor social environments that have gonne through a drug recuperation program. These people provide the teenagers with contention and guidance to help them start a new life in society. A titanic job.In December 2005, I was invited to share my story with a small group of these youngsters. They heard my story with rapt attention, but what they also valued is that I dedicated part of my time to spend with them one entire evening. They realized that ordeals happen to everyone, even to those who seem to have a happy and successful life. Their stories were also awesome; one of them had lost one of his ears to the bite of a pork when he was a toddler. They all had incredible tough personal experiences, but they were very glad to realize that theirs were not the only ones, and that it is possible to come back.


The Woman in the Mountains

But then the episode of the woman in the mountains happened. I was in a business trip with my wife Noelle, we were in the area close to where we had crashed in the mountains. One of our guides was a woman in her 40s. She came to me and told us that her only child had committed suicide, and the only reason why she was alive, was because our history had inspired her hope. If we overcame our mountain, she would overcome hers. I was confused and almost told her that I wasn’t any role model and that I didn´t have anything to do with her personal disgrace. But I let her go with our story, if our story would inspire her so much hope and meant the difference between life and death, it wasn’t the one to take her back to brutal reality. I started to realize again that our story is quite a strong one and that it can inspire others beyond our personal life!!

Cartagena, Colombia

A few weeks later, my friend Claudio, who heads one of the top leading Head Hunters firms, called me to ask me for a reference on Fernando Parrado as a speaker. He was intending to hire him as a key notes speaker for the senior partners meeting of his firm to be held in Athens later that year. During the conversation, at some point I thought Claudio would be interested in having me as a speaker in such an important meeting. But Claudio was clear, Parrado had his talks very well organized and he couldn’t take the chance of hiring someone who hadn’t started talking yet. Going to Athens to speak to the partners of such a prestigious firm was a nice challenge. Parrado got the job and he did a great presentation. But I started to think about it. So, when two months later I received a call from someone in Colombia asking for a reference for someone willing to go to Cartagena and address a group of Traumatologists, I said I would go.

And that is how I showed up in Colombia, talking openly to complete strangers for the first time in my life. It was a nice experience and I enjoyed it very much. I learned a lot from my Colombian experience, nevertheless I just don’t want to present my experience in the Andes as an isolated life experience. I did a lot of other things in my life and I think I can add a unique value to the leanings of my ordeal.

Bogotá, Colombia

When I went to Cartagena, Colombia, to address the Traumatologists, I made a stop over in Bogotá where my brother Santiago lives. His daughter Alejandra, a beautiful 15 year-old girl, had invited me to speak to her school class mates. The 15 year old girls waited for me with their homework done, they all had read the book Alive in their English class and they had very profound and serious questions. They even confronted me to what I said in the book!!! After my presentation, they discussed among themselves the meanings of my message. I was really very impressed. It was a marvelous event and I really enjoyed talking to this group

El Documental (De nuevo)

Por muchos años, guardé la historia de nuestra odisea para mí y mi familia. Solo unos pocos amigos muy cercanos me habían escuchado hablar sobre ella. Pero no porque tuviera algún problema en particular para hablar, sino porque estaba muy ocupado trabajando, haciendo mi carrera corporativa, criando mi familia y observando con algo de disgusto a mis compañeros sobrevivientes hablar sobre ella. Encima, pensaba además que nuestra historia no tenía demasiadas aristas particulares.

Pero las cosas empezaron a cambiar. No recuerdo exactamente como pasó, pero paso a paso, me encontré hablando a pequeños grupos de adolescentes que se juntaban alrededor de mi historia. Después, Gonzalo Arijón se presentó con su proyecto de un nuevo documental sobre el tema de los Andes. Le dije que no, pero como insistió mucho, le pregunté a mis hermanos y a mis hijos qué pensarían si yo participaba de este nuevo documental. Y para mi sorpresa, encontré que querían oírme, que querían saber qué tenia yo que decir sobre la montaña.

La verdad es que disfruté participando del documental de Arijón y más tarde del libro de Pablo Vierci que no ha sido publicado aún, en el que cada uno de los 16 sobrevivientes da su versión de lo que vivimos allí arriba y cómo nos hemos arreglado después en la vida.

Pero la verdad es que la montaña aparece con una fuerza increíble. Cuando hablo de ella siento una enorme energía y vitalidad. Me siento 100% vivo. Cuando hablo, siento que mi mensaje de esperanza toca a mucha gente. Por eso hablo ahora.


La Urdimbre

Marcelo Serantes siempre ha mostrado un verdadero interés en nuestra experiencia y siempre me ha alentado a hablar sobre ella. El piensa que el mensaje es muy fuerte y muy en línea con los ideales Cristianos. El me presentó a la gente de la Urdimbre. Son muchachos increíbles. La Urdimbre es una organización que se ocupa de adolescentes de origen muy humilde que han terminado un programa de recuperación de su adicción a las drogas. Esta gente les ofrece a estos adolescentes contención y guía de cómo empezar de nuevo en la sociedad. Un trabajo bien difícil.

En Diciembre del 2005, me invitaron a compartir mi historia con un pequeño grupo de estos chicos. Escucharon mi historia con increíble atención y creo que también valoraron que me haya tomado el tiempo de compartir con ellos una tarde completa. Se dieron cuenta que tragedias le ocurren a cualquiera, aún a aquellos que parecieran tener una vida exitosa. Sus historias eran impresionantes, uno de ellos había perdido una de sus orejas mordido por un cerdo cuando era pequeño. Todos tenía tremendas historias personales, pero estaban contentos de saber de que las de ellos no eran las únicas, y que además se puede volver a empezar.


La Mujer en la Montaña

Después pasó el episodio de la mujer en la montaña. Estaba en un viaje de trabajo con Noelle en el área cercana al lugar en el que habíamos caído en la montaña. Una de nuestras guías era una mujer de unos 40 años. Vino hacia nosotros y nos contó que su único hijo se había suicidado y que la única razón por la que ella seguía viva era porque nuestra historia le inspiraba esperanza. Si nosotros pudimos sobrellevar nuestra montaña, ella podría sobrellevar la de ella. Quedé confundido, y casi le digo que yo no tenía nada que ver con su desgracia personal y que tampoco era un modelo de vida. Pero la dejé ir con nuestra historia. Si nuestra historia le inspiraba a ella tanta esperanza y es la diferencia entre la vida y la muerte, no era yo quien le quitara esa esperanza y la colocara frente de su dura realidad. Empecé nuevamente a reflexionar que nuestra historia es realmente muy fuerte y que puede inspirar a otros más allá de nuestra vida personal.


Cartagena, Colombia

Unas semanas más tarde, mi amigo Claudio que lidera una de las compañías de Búsquedas de Personal más importantes, me llamó para pedirme referencias de Fernando Parrado como conferencista. Pretendía llevarlo como presentador principal a la reunión de socios de su empresa que se iba a desarrollar en Atenas más tarde ese año. Durante la conversación, en algún momento pensé que Claudio me quería llevar a mí como conferencista a esa reunión tan importante. Pero Claudio fue claro, Parrado tiene sus charlas muy organizadas y él no podría correr el riesgo de contratar a alguien que no ha comenzado a hablar todavía. Parrado realizó ese trabajó y tuvo un gran éxito. Pero yo comencé a pensar sobre ello. Así que dos meses después recibí una llamada de alguien en Colombia pidiendo una referencia de alguno que quisiera ir a dar una charla a Cartagena a hablar a un grupo de Traumatólogos. Y contesté que yo iría.

Y así fue como aparecí en Colombia, hablando abiertamente a desconocidos por primera vez en mi vida. Fue una buena experiencia y la disfruté mucho. Aprendí mucho de mi experiencia Colombiana, aunque no quiero presentar mi vivencia en los Andes como algo aislado o fuera de contexto. He hecho muchas otras cosas en mi vida y creo que puedo aportar un valor especial a las lecciones de nuestra odisea.


Bogotá, Colombia

Cuando fui a Cartagena, Colombia, ha hablar ante los Traumatólogos, nos quedamos unos días en Bogotá donde vive mi hermano Santiago. Su hija Alejandra, una lindísima chica de 15 años, me había invitado a hablar a su clase del colegio. Las chicas de 15 años me esperaban con sus deberes hechos, todas habían leído el libro “Viven” en su clase de inglés y tenían preparadas varias preguntas muy serias y profundas. Incluso me confrontaron con lo que yo había dicho en el libro!!!!!! Después de mi presentación, discutieron entre ellas el significado de mi mensaje. Quedé muy impresionado. Fue un evento maravilloso y disfruté mucho conversar con ese grupo de adolescentes.