People think they know what happened on that glacier in 1972. They've seen the 1993 film Alive, or maybe they just caught J.A. Bayona’s recent Netflix hit. But La Sociedad de la Nieve isn't just a movie title; it’s a terrifyingly accurate sociological term for what happened when 45 people fell out of the sky and into a frozen hell.
It was Friday the 13th.
The Fairchild FH-227D was carrying the Old Christians Club rugby team from Uruguay to Chile. They never made it. Instead, they slammed into the Andes at 11,000 feet. Most people assume the "big secret" or the "dark part" is the cannibalism. Honestly? That's the least interesting part of the survival story once you dig into the mechanics of how they actually stayed alive for 72 days.
What La Sociedad de la Nieve Gets Right About the Crash
The impact was violent. It wasn't a glide. The plane clipped a ridge, lost its wings, and the fuselage slid like a high-speed toboggan down a steep slope before slamming into a snowbank. Imagine the sound. Metal screaming. Bones snapping.
Roberto Canessa, who was a medical student at the time, described the immediate aftermath as a literal war zone. You had people with steel rods pierced through their torsos. Nando Parrado was in a coma for three days, his skull fractured. Everyone thought he was dead. They put him in the "morgue" area of the wreckage because his breath was so faint.
Survival started with a triage that would break most modern doctors. They had no medicine. No bandages. They used the seat covers as blankets and the luggage to wall off the gaping hole in the back of the plane.
The physics of the cold
At that altitude, your body doesn't just feel cold. It starts to shut down. The air is thin. Every breath is a chore. The survivors had to invent ways to melt snow because eating it directly lowers your core temperature and causes sores in your mouth. They used the back of seat pockets as solar collectors.
It worked. Sorta.
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The Avalanche: The Moment Hope Actually Died
Most people focus on the crash, but the avalanche on day 17 was arguably worse. It buried the fuselage while everyone was sleeping. Eight people died instantly, suffocated by the weight of the snow. The survivors were trapped in a tiny, pitch-black tube for three days.
Think about that.
You are buried alive under six feet of snow, sharing the air with the bodies of your friends, and you have to use a small metal pole to poke holes through the ceiling just to get oxygen. This is where the real La Sociedad de la Nieve—the society of the snow—was forged. They had to decide right then if they were going to give up or keep fighting.
Nando Parrado, once he woke up from his coma, became the driving force. He didn't care about the odds. He basically told the others that he was going to walk out or die trying. There was no middle ground.
The Ethical Breaking Point
We have to talk about the food. It’s the elephant in the room. In the film La Sociedad de la Nieve, Bayona handles it with incredible grace, focusing on the spiritual and communal pact rather than the gore.
The reality was clinical and devastating.
They waited until they were literally starving to death. They had tried eating the leather from suitcases, but the chemicals made them sick. They tried eating the straw from the seats. Nothing.
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The pact they made was profound: "If I die, you can use my body so that you can live." It wasn't just survival; it was a donation. This shifted the act from something "ghoulish" to something sacred in their minds. It’s a nuance that often gets lost in sensationalist headlines. Canessa, being a medical student, had to lead the process because he understood the anatomy. He has spoken many times about the immense psychological wall he had to climb to make that first cut.
Why the Final Trek Was Theoretically Impossible
When Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa finally decided to walk out, they had no mountain gear. No maps. No climbing boots. They didn't even know where they were. They thought they were in the foothills of Chile.
They weren't.
They were deep in the heart of the cordillera. When they finally climbed the highest peak, expecting to see green valleys, they saw nothing but more mountains. Hundreds of them.
It should have been the end. Most people would have sat down and waited for death. Instead, Parrado turned to Canessa and said, "We’re going." They walked for 10 days.
The gear they "invented"
- The Sleeping Bag: They sewed together the insulation from the plane's tail using copper wire. It saved their lives during the nights on the open ridges.
- The Shoes: They wrapped their feet in layers of fabric and leather, trying to prevent frostbite.
- The Diet: They carried human flesh in socks. It was their only fuel.
When they finally encountered the Chilean horseman, Sergio Catalán, they were skeletons. Parrado had lost half his body weight. They looked like ghosts emerging from the mist.
The Cultural Impact of the 2024 Retelling
The reason the latest version of this story resonated so much more than the 90s version is the focus on the "Numa Turcatti" perspective. Numa wasn't a rugby player. He didn't survive until the end. But he was the heart of the group.
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By telling the story through the eyes of those who didn't make it, La Sociedad de la Nieve honors the dead in a way previous versions failed to do. It highlights that survival wasn't just about the "strongest" winning; it was about a collective effort where the people who died literally gave their lives (and bodies) to the ones who walked out.
Real Evidence and Research
If you want to go deeper, read La Sociedad de la Nieve by Pablo Vierci. He was a schoolmate of the survivors and spent decades gathering their accounts. Unlike Alive, which focuses on the "action," Vierci’s work looks at the psychological "after" of the event.
There's also the Museo Andes 1972 in Montevideo. It’s a small, heartbreaking place that houses original artifacts—the makeshift sunglasses, the clothes, the letters written by those who knew they wouldn't make it.
How to Apply These Lessons Today
It sounds cheesy to say "survive your own Andes," but the psychological framework used by the 16 survivors is actually taught in high-stakes leadership courses today.
- Accept the New Reality Immediately: The people who survived were the ones who stopped waiting for a rescue that wasn't coming. They accepted that the old world was gone and the "Snow Society" was their new home.
- Micro-Goals: Parrado didn't focus on Chile. He focused on the next ten steps. Then the next ten.
- The Power of the Collective: Alone, every single one of them would have died. The division of labor—some melting water, some cleaning the cabin, some planning the route—kept them sane.
If you are looking for the definitive account, start with the 2023 film for the visuals, but move to Vierci’s book for the soul. The survivors are in their 70s and 80s now. Their numbers are thinning. But the story of what happened on that glacier remains the most incredible example of human endurance ever recorded.
Actionable Steps for Deep Diving
- Watch the "Society of the Snow" Documentary: Netflix released a "making of" that shows how they filmed in the actual location where the crash happened. The actors stayed in the same conditions to understand the physical toll.
- Read Nando Parrado’s "Miracle in the Andes": It’s a first-person account that is much more raw than the group biographies.
- Check the Flight Path: Use Google Earth to look at the "Glaciar de las Lágrimas." Seeing the sheer scale of the mountains they climbed with zero equipment puts their 10-day trek into a perspective that no camera lens can capture.
The story of the Andes is often called a miracle. But calling it a miracle ignores the sheer, brutal work and the impossible choices these men made. It wasn't magic. It was a terrifying, beautiful display of what humans can do when there's absolutely nothing left.