Berthoud Community Library District

The survivors tell of their day to day stuggle for life on the Andes Mountain. Alive re-creates one of the greatest survival stories of our time.

Nando Parrado regained consciousness to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as family members and supporters, had crashed deep in the Andes. Many were dead or dying, among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a glacier at nearly 12,000 feet, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search...

Throughout history, the most harrowing stories of human survival, like that of the Donner Party in the 1840s, have involved people whose only means of staying alive was to cannibalize the deceased around them. On Friday the 13th of October, 1972, just such a story began when a charter plane carrying 45 rugby team members crashed in the remote Andes Mountains. For 72 days, the world thought they were dead. But what 16 survivors endured was far worse...

"On October 12, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying members of the "Old Christians" rugby team--and many of their friends and family members--crashed into the Andes Mountains. I Had to Survive offers a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that propelled survivor Roberto Canessa to become one of the world's leading pediatric cardiologists. As he tended to his wounded teammates amidst the devastating...