Trapped in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After crashing high in the Andes, Nando Parrado had to go to the extreme to get out.

In 1972, when the plane carrying 22 year old Uruguayan Nando Parrado and his rugby team came down deep in the Andes mountain range in South America, they were left for dead. Rescue teams called off their search after 10 days. Nando and the other survivors would spend an incredible 72 days trapped, frozen and forsaken in this icy wilderness. And in order to come out alive, they would have to do the unthinkable.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Laura Thomas

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.5	I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.1	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.0	relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life. So one day I'll be
0:23.5	helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature, and the next looking at
0:29.6	how a podcast connects with its audience. And maybe that's you. So if you like this podcast,
0:35.4	check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:47.7	In 1969, a plan to show support for an anti-racism protest turned the lives of 14 promising black student athletes upside down.
0:52.1	Amazing sports stories from the BBC World Service tells their story.
0:55.5	Search for amazing sports stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. On the highest peaks, it's very difficult to survive. We found a small transistor
1:06.1	radio. We could listen to the news. Ten days after the plane crash in the morning, the journalist said,
1:14.6	we have to confirm that the search for the Uruguayan airplane has been abandoned.
1:22.6	This was the confirmation that we were going to die.
1:33.9	This news meant the end.
1:39.6	Huddled around that radio, on that mountaintop, in the middle of the Andes, beside the wreckage of the plane, they had been traveling on 10 days earlier, 22-year-old Nando Perado and his friends from his
1:45.9	local rugby team in Uruguay slumped to the snow in despair. Now they were forsaken, forgotten by the
1:53.2	world. They would spend an incredible 72 days trapped in this icy, hostile landscape.
2:00.5	And in order to get out alive, they'd have to do
2:03.4	the unthinkable. You're listening to Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service. I'm
2:13.6	Osia Fuchs.
2:23.4	In the life of a teenager or a very young guy on your 18, 19, 20, life is perfect.
2:31.5	Death is so far away from you. Nando's now in his 70s, but just a few years after
	...

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