Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

By Piers Paul Read

I remember seeing the movie "Alive" during the year I graduated from high school. It was one of those movies that I wouldn't forget- the story of surviving the plane crash on the Andes mountains was just too captivating. A couple of months ago I was flipping through the channels and caught the last third of it. I still remember the disheartening feeling once Parrado and his expeditionary friend Canessa crest that 13,000 foot peek and see before them a seemingly endless journey. It made me want to know more about the men that could survive this. How could they carry on under such terrible conditions with so little strength and only the tiniest hopes of making it?

I decided to order it from the library and what was delivered was a book older than I am, published a year before I was born. The green, 70's library binding complete with, uhm, well-loved pages didn't make a snuggly read to drag into bed with me, but still, my bed's seen worse! SOOOO just kidding on that... But into bed it has gone with me for a while now and though it has a documentary, non-fiction feel to it, I think that really was the most fitting style to retell a story like this.

The reason the book is always better than the movie is so much about the details and this book gave them to the reader- letters written to family members on the plane, the actual methods of survival including a more in-depth, though not gory, look at the cannibalism that took place from logistics to palatability to morale and spiritual rationals, and the resourcefulness of the group. The squabbles, the sleeping arrangements, the justifications for food rationing portions based on output for the group or lameness, the physical problems that each faced along with what others did or did not do to help. It really was an account that gave the reader a real look at what it meant to make it during that time.

Nobody is painted as a perfect hero like the movie tended to do, but many had moments of heroism, some more grand than others and almost all had failings, as would be expected. Failings physically, mentally and spiritually. And yet, the overwhelming feeling I was left with was how profound God had been in their lives, well, at least for most. The miracle of their survival was incredible and it was not lost on most of them.

I also found myself wondering about the story after the rescue and the book did not disappoint. From coping with the press to recovering from the mental and physical tole, the reunions with family members to the piercing horror of the dead's families at what had happened to their loved ones. The saddest stories were the ones that had survived the initial crash, suffered terribly and then had later been killed in the avalanche. Cap that off with knowing that they'd then been eaten for survival (though they understood why) and you've got a pretty disturbing picture of how your loved one ended his time on this planet. But, still so much beauty and grace even in that understanding...

"The mothers showed similar courage. Some saw their dead sons in the survivors, for it was not difficult to understand that if their children had stayed alive and the others had died, the same thing would have happened; and that if all forty-five had survived the accident and avalanche, all forty-five would now be dead. They could imagine, too, the mental and physical anguish suffered by the survivors. All they wished now was that they should forget what they had been through. After all, it was not the sons or brothers or parents of their friends that they had eaten to survive. They had been already in heaven."

70 days. They survived for 70 days in the Andes mountains. And 2 men walked out to save them all. That is a miracle and it is no less awe-inspiring nearly 40 years after it happened.