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From Wendry, I'm Cassie Depegel, and this is Against the Odds.

Over the last four episodes, we've told the story of Uruguayan Air Force flight 571. The plane was

bound for Chile, carrying members of the old Christian's rugby team when it crashed deep in the

Andes mountains. The surviving passengers spent a total of 72 days stranded in freezing conditions

at nearly 12,000 feet, before two of them climbed over the mountains for help. Today, we're speaking

with Mountaineer Ricardo Pena, while climbing near the crash site in 2005, he discovered a jacket

belonging to one of the survivors and wreckage from the plane that had never been found three decades

later. The following year, Pena led a National Geographic Expedition retracing the escape route,

Nando Perado and Roberto Canessa took out of the Andes into Chile.

Ricardo Pena, welcome to Against the Odds.

That's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

I want to ask you about your expeditions in the Andes. But first, can you tell us how you learned

about Miracle Flight 571 and the old Christian's rugby team?

Yeah, the story of the Andes survivors was talked about a lot in Mexico. I grew up in Mexico City.

It was talked about everywhere all over the world, but it hit even closer in Latin American

countries. And Mexicans made a movie in 1974, which now you can find that movie entitled Survive.

I was about six years old when I first saw the movie. It was a very bad movie, but the story was

so powerful that it made a huge impact. We would catch it on TV. It's just an incredible story.

And I also always had a fascination with snow, wanted to touch snow, go to snowy places, and that

whole story took place on a glacier. The snow was what was trapping them.

You mentioned the snow. What else about the story captured your imagination?

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