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Nando Parrado Interviewed by Geoff Powter — Transcript

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  1. 0:06well Nando PR I want to welcome you to
  2. 0:08um our archive series here at the at the
  3. 0:10Mountain film festival I'm thrilled to
  4. 0:12be able to have this conversation with
  5. 0:13you I'm I'm thrilled to be here because
  6. 0:15B the the film festival and the Book
  7. 0:17Festival have uh they have always been
  8. 0:20on my mind so I I wanted to come
  9. 0:23everything happens if you wait long
  10. 0:24enough everything does happen if you
  11. 0:26wait long enough yes and just on the way
  12. 0:27over here you were mentioning you've
  13. 0:28actually been in this area or near near
  14. 0:30here anyways because of course you spent
  15. 0:32quite a number of months during the
  16. 0:33filming of when the filming of alive
  17. 0:35took place in the Panorama ski resort I
  18. 0:38spent like four months in the area so I
  19. 0:41I learned how to enjoy the mountains and
  20. 0:44how to love this
  21. 0:45beautiful part of the world no this part
  22. 0:47of Canada the west coast is absolutely
  23. 0:50beautiful well I I wanted to start just
  24. 0:52um bringing up one of the things that
  25. 0:54you had mentioned um towards the end of
  26. 0:56uh your recent book miracle in the Andes
  27. 1:00in which you say that um the very first
  28. 1:02time that you gave a a talk to a a
  29. 1:04corporate group helping motivate people
  30. 1:07you said um I should not be here I
  31. 1:10should be dead on a glacier in the Andes
  32. 1:12and it it just strikes me that that's
  33. 1:13probably something you could say about
  34. 1:14every single day of your life right now
  35. 1:17yeah it's something I don't
  36. 1:20intentionally think about it but it's
  37. 1:23people ask me do you really think every
  38. 1:25day about what happened to you I don't
  39. 1:27think every day but I think that I'm
  40. 1:29alive every every day so in a way I
  41. 1:32think you know yeah and the the first
  42. 1:35time I I spoke about this ordeal was 22
  43. 1:39years after after the plane crashed you
  44. 1:41know I was very busy doing other things
  45. 1:44so it wasn't so much that you couldn't
  46. 1:45speak about it or didn't choose to speak
  47. 1:47about no I I chose not to speak because
  48. 1:49I didn't have time I was I had the
  49. 1:51chance to live my my life
  50. 1:54again and uh I think you should live
  51. 1:56your life no so I started working and
  52. 1:59doing my sports my family my friends my
  53. 2:01dogs everything MH well one of the other
  54. 2:04things that you said in the book that
  55. 2:05really struck me was the idea that you
  56. 2:07um you're at peace in your life now not
  57. 2:10in spite of what happened but rather
  58. 2:13because of it can you tell me a bit more
  59. 2:14of what you meant by
  60. 2:16that I don't know uh I don't know if
  61. 2:19people has they have to go through
  62. 2:21things like limit situations to
  63. 2:24understand that the most simple things
  64. 2:25are the the most valuable ones but
  65. 2:28everybody that goes through something
  66. 2:29like that can it be a disaster a tragedy
  67. 2:34a family loss sickness then suddenly
  68. 2:37they realize that they are at peace with
  69. 2:38themselves because they don't search
  70. 2:40anymore for something that they nobody
  71. 2:42knows what you're searching and always
  72. 2:44running behind something no MH you're
  73. 2:47running behind power money uh women
  74. 2:50whatever but you're always running you
  75. 2:51know and when something happens you
  76. 2:53realize Jesus I have to slow down
  77. 2:55instead of running mhm and uh and
  78. 2:59luckily I found it uh in a very horrible
  79. 3:04way because the the the weight of the
  80. 3:06loss of my family members and my friends
  81. 3:09was very very big know but it's
  82. 3:12interesting I don't know if I was if I
  83. 3:14would prefer to be at peace now or with
  84. 3:19my friends and my family you know and
  85. 3:21not at peace yeah although you certainly
  86. 3:23have also said that you in many ways you
  87. 3:25wouldn't have traded what happened to
  88. 3:27you despite the loss or perhaps because
  89. 3:31it's a
  90. 3:32balance and it's this is my life with
  91. 3:36the acccident I mean I cannot pretend it
  92. 3:38didn't happen MH and because of the
  93. 3:41accident my life changed it took another
  94. 3:44route another road and because I took
  95. 3:46that road I found a woman I married and
  96. 3:49I have a family
  97. 3:52so if the accident didn't happen I
  98. 3:54wouldn't have my daughters my family so
  99. 3:56it's a balance which I I don't even want
  100. 3:58to consider right you know I just live
  101. 4:01my life would I change what I had before
  102. 4:03for what I have now it's it's impossible
  103. 4:06to to weigh that on a on a scale so I
  104. 4:11just enjoy what I have it's fascinating
  105. 4:13though you know because I I
  106. 4:15hear a lot of people that have gone
  107. 4:17through really difficult circumstances
  108. 4:19tragedies like that seem to have become
  109. 4:22a lot more philosophically settled about
  110. 4:25some of those kinds of ideas whereas
  111. 4:27other people they don't have to worry
  112. 4:28about things like that so much I don't
  113. 4:29know if it's philosophical I think it's
  114. 4:32you find that life is simpler than it
  115. 4:34tends to be you know people tend to for
  116. 4:37me this table is black you know you're
  117. 4:39wearing a green shirt we are doing an
  118. 4:41interview here and I crashed on an
  119. 4:43airplane why I don't know I mean car
  120. 4:46crashes usually you have a car crash on
  121. 4:48a corner on a road and they crash I
  122. 4:51crash with an airplane and uh we
  123. 4:53survived something that's not surviv
  124. 4:56survivable and I have been given the
  125. 4:59chance to live again so I don't know if
  126. 5:02it's philosophical I think it's simpler
  127. 5:03to enjoy every day enjoy the people you
  128. 5:06have around and uh not run behind things
  129. 5:10that you'll never get you know because
  130. 5:13you're always running I was always
  131. 5:14running and sometimes when I'm still
  132. 5:16running some days I say Nando stop
  133. 5:19remember you know put the handbrake and
  134. 5:20slow down and yet as as human beings
  135. 5:24were prone to trying to find meaning in
  136. 5:27things and to second guess things and I
  137. 5:28know in the in your book you've done you
  138. 5:30know in a sense you do a lot of that you
  139. 5:32sort through how natural it was to say
  140. 5:34what if we hadn't done this and what if
  141. 5:36we hadn't put pressure on the pilots
  142. 5:37that day and what if we hadn't booked
  143. 5:39that flight and all those kinds of
  144. 5:40things yeah well everybody asks
  145. 5:43questions but um there are one of the
  146. 5:47most important truths I have ever found
  147. 5:51in my life is that there are questions
  148. 5:54that will never have an answer you know
  149. 5:56you keep looking for answers you keep
  150. 5:58looking for answers but they're never
  151. 6:00there why did I invite my mother to go
  152. 6:03on that airplane crash and my on that
  153. 6:05airplane flight with my sister why yeah
  154. 6:09I don't know and so is part of what
  155. 6:12you're saying that in the end it doesn't
  156. 6:13really matter it's not you don't have to
  157. 6:15look for answers for that just just
  158. 6:17accept whates I think you you just have
  159. 6:18to accept what life brings and uh enjoy
  160. 6:20it and people say why did this happened
  161. 6:23to me why
  162. 6:26not but I think that our our or deal or
  163. 6:31our experience is a little bit different
  164. 6:33to what happens to mountain climbers
  165. 6:37when something goes wrong they know the
  166. 6:40risks they know that something can go
  167. 6:42wrong and they accept the risks and they
  168. 6:45buy in into it from the beginning it's
  169. 6:46their choice to be there it's their
  170. 6:48choice to be there and we were Beach
  171. 6:52Boys not from the mountains we had never
  172. 6:54seen snow before in our lives 95% of the
  173. 6:56boys had never touched snow in their
  174. 6:58lives so we were dropped into a
  175. 7:02glacier and we had to survive which is
  176. 7:05different that when a mountain climber
  177. 7:07goes and something goes wrong MH I'm a
  178. 7:10race car driver I race a lot and I
  179. 7:13assume that something can go wrong but I
  180. 7:17if I crash well it's my choice I mean
  181. 7:20maybe I made a mistake there was oil on
  182. 7:22the track another guy made a mistake in
  183. 7:24front of me but it's part of the rules
  184. 7:26of the game I know if you go to climb
  185. 7:28there can be an ban weather
  186. 7:32storms uh your teammate can fail but
  187. 7:35those are part of of climbing no do you
  188. 7:39think you came to different kinds of
  189. 7:40conclusions or or saw yourself doing
  190. 7:42things differently than other people
  191. 7:43though because it seems like your
  192. 7:46approach has been a pretty good one
  193. 7:47whereas some some of the other people um
  194. 7:50that were involved in the accident had
  195. 7:52different ways of looking at things and
  196. 7:53I'm thinking particularly about faith
  197. 7:55and and a belief in that there's a
  198. 7:57protection coming from God or that
  199. 7:58something is is going to be pre-ordained
  200. 8:00I think that if we we would or I would
  201. 8:03or we would or they would have found a a
  202. 8:07fantastic answer to all the religion
  203. 8:10questions we would be very wise and we
  204. 8:12would have discovered the the meaning of
  205. 8:14life and the meaning of the universe and
  206. 8:15the meaning of infinite and the meaning
  207. 8:17of God but we just I think we dealt with
  208. 8:21that uh with more time than usually
  209. 8:25people devote to that theme Here There
  210. 8:28we were trapped for for 72 days and
  211. 8:30every single day we talked about our
  212. 8:32families and about religion because what
  213. 8:35do you do there there you cannot go for
  214. 8:37a walk or for a stroll on the park
  215. 8:40you're trapped inside a fuselage at
  216. 8:4212,000 ft so there was a great guy ruro
  217. 8:47who he liked to read about theology so
  218. 8:51we had a lot of discussions about
  219. 8:53Theology and he died and he knew he was
  220. 8:55dying
  221. 8:56and he put us to a test he says I'm
  222. 8:59dying I'm going to get closer to God but
  223. 9:02you know sometimes I doubt that he
  224. 9:05exists and the only thing that I'm sure
  225. 9:10of he says he said is that I'm doubting
  226. 9:13without
  227. 9:14guilt you know because here
  228. 9:18in on Society on you know when you go to
  229. 9:21church when you do things everything is
  230. 9:24penalized you know
  231. 9:26everything you sin you're uh punished by
  232. 9:31religion you know because you do that
  233. 9:32you do that and you have to believe
  234. 9:34believe because of faith and that's all
  235. 9:37that religion asks you to to believe
  236. 9:39because of your faith and I think we
  237. 9:41went a a small step further up there
  238. 9:45trying to understand why God saved some
  239. 9:50guys and not other guys they prayed as
  240. 9:52much as we did yeah you know they wanted
  241. 9:55to live and they fought as much as we
  242. 9:57did my mother wanted to leave my sister
  243. 10:00too Guido my best friend Panchito Alexis
  244. 10:02Koko they wanted to live and they prayed
  245. 10:04as much he answered my phone and not
  246. 10:07their
  247. 10:08phone who can explain that you know and
  248. 10:12then the simple fact that you were there
  249. 10:13in the first place is is a question of
  250. 10:15for some people would be a question of
  251. 10:17Faith as well how could God do this to
  252. 10:18me how could it why would be trash I
  253. 10:20think that bad things happen in life as
  254. 10:23you know life is like a pzle with a
  255. 10:28thousand pieces or millions of pieces
  256. 10:30and you have nice pieces ugly ones
  257. 10:33average ones you know and some bad ones
  258. 10:36also and that's part of life I think uh
  259. 10:40life is something that everybody wants
  260. 10:42to be absolutely perfect and nice all
  261. 10:45the time sometimes it has
  262. 10:49cracks one of the interesting things
  263. 10:50about the experience that you had of
  264. 10:52course was that you in many senses you
  265. 10:53were also children I mean you were still
  266. 10:55you were still pretty young man at K was
  267. 10:5717 you know yeah I think the average age
  268. 11:00was 18 and a half 18 and not even 19
  269. 11:05and when you're that age nothing can
  270. 11:09happen to
  271. 11:10you you're Immortal you know Sports
  272. 11:14studies
  273. 11:16girls studies sports girls you know
  274. 11:18that's all that exists and for a lot of
  275. 11:21people that shows itself in in teenagers
  276. 11:23being very very self-centered that
  277. 11:25everything is about what happens to them
  278. 11:27and why it happens to them
  279. 11:30um I imagine it must have been hard not
  280. 11:33to feel like somehow this was about you
  281. 11:35that that somehow you know why why would
  282. 11:37this have happened to you it's back to
  283. 11:39my other question but how did you
  284. 11:40challenge that how did you get past that
  285. 11:44especially you because you you lost more
  286. 11:47people more directly than anybody else
  287. 11:49on that plane did yes all the other guys
  288. 11:51were there and they were suffering the
  289. 11:53consequences of being stranded abandoned
  290. 11:57left to die you know you know the same
  291. 12:00that I was suffering plus I had to bury
  292. 12:03my mother and my sister and my best
  293. 12:04friends with my hands on the on the eyes
  294. 12:07so I think
  295. 12:09that the fact that your mind changes its
  296. 12:15wavelength over there because it's not
  297. 12:18the same feelings the same way that you
  298. 12:22think here that you're thinking there
  299. 12:24instantly Everything Changes Everything
  300. 12:26Changes in a in a way that I even now
  301. 12:30uh confuses me a lot because I couldn't
  302. 12:32cry as I say in my conferences why
  303. 12:34couldn't I
  304. 12:36cry and uh that voice which I say it's
  305. 12:40instinct told me not to
  306. 12:43cry and I had to cope with the situation
  307. 12:47and I said as soon as the sorrow goes
  308. 12:50away I I'll have to keep on fighting to
  309. 12:52get back to my father I can't allow this
  310. 12:56sorrow to overcome my capacity of
  311. 12:59thinking you know
  312. 13:02and it amazes me a lot of times how can
  313. 13:05you be so
  314. 13:06cold at those moments you know and I'm
  315. 13:11not a psychiatrist I'm not a
  316. 13:14psychologist I'm not a shrink I don't
  317. 13:15know but something happens in your mind
  318. 13:18that the instinct to survive overrides
  319. 13:21the
  320. 13:22feelings because if you slow down if you
  321. 13:25stop you're dead absolutely dead I think
  322. 13:27you you change
  323. 13:30your brain adopts
  324. 13:32another type of thinking and you in a
  325. 13:36way you're simpler you're just like an
  326. 13:38animal surviving on Instinct you know
  327. 13:40you cannot stop to to
  328. 13:42suffer
  329. 13:44and yet at the same time you set up an
  330. 13:47incredibly complicated social structure
  331. 13:49when you were there I mean people played
  332. 13:50very different roles or were very
  333. 13:52different levels of emotion people who
  334. 13:55are stronger people who are weaker
  335. 13:57people who have to do things people who
  336. 13:58would rather sit back and wait did that
  337. 14:00just kind of fall into place do you
  338. 14:02think I think it everything F fell into
  339. 14:05place
  340. 14:06perfectly um we were a fantastic team 10
  341. 14:10years before the plane
  342. 14:12crashed and I don't know if that seen
  343. 14:15from the outside but we knew each other
  344. 14:18at least 12 years 13 years before the
  345. 14:22plane crashed we had been playing rugby
  346. 14:25in the same school for 10 or 12 years
  347. 14:28together yeah uh playing soccer first
  348. 14:30when you're young you know when you're
  349. 14:32seven 8 nine you play soccer then you go
  350. 14:34into rugby and we had been playing rugby
  351. 14:36for 10 nine 10 years together and the
  352. 14:40rugby is also something that's a big
  353. 14:44part of the social structure of our
  354. 14:46community you live a very nice teenage
  355. 14:50part of your life there with rugby and
  356. 14:52rugby is a sport that tends
  357. 14:54to make you
  358. 14:57very give a very tight friendship ship
  359. 14:59to your friends because you you you
  360. 15:00suffer and you fight a lot on on the
  361. 15:02field mhm and the fact that we were team
  362. 15:06allowed us to be a
  363. 15:09team even minutes after the plane
  364. 15:12crashed so it it really struck me as
  365. 15:14interesting that the positions on the
  366. 15:17field started playing themselves out on
  367. 15:20the glacier as well yeah and there was a
  368. 15:24fantastic guy Marcelo per Castillo he
  369. 15:26was the captain of the team
  370. 15:29a guy who was a strong player a
  371. 15:31fantastic Sportsman he was 21 22 years
  372. 15:35old I mean but he had such a great
  373. 15:38ability to lead you know on the field
  374. 15:41and outside the field he was a the
  375. 15:43perfect captain and uh he led us from
  376. 15:47the first instance after the crash he
  377. 15:50led the team all the way
  378. 15:53and according to the actions of some of
  379. 15:58the survivors and some or some of the
  380. 16:00guys that were in the crash the torch of
  381. 16:03leadership passed from hand to
  382. 16:06hand uh four five six times we had four
  383. 16:09five six different leaders all through
  384. 16:11the this ordeal and nobody wanted
  385. 16:14to be a leader just happened you know
  386. 16:18who wanted I always say who wanted to be
  387. 16:20the leader of a bunch of guys condemned
  388. 16:22to Die the most horrible death you can
  389. 16:27imagine that's interesting way to frame
  390. 16:30it just when you say that because
  391. 16:31there's in your book there're both
  392. 16:34elements of knowing that that could even
  393. 16:37be the likely outcome but absolutely
  394. 16:39refusing to believe that that's going to
  395. 16:40be the case and and you particularly
  396. 16:43knowing that one of the things you could
  397. 16:45not do is just sit there and wait I
  398. 16:48think that in a way uh I don't know why
  399. 16:52and it just happened to me when we
  400. 16:56listened on the 10th day that the search
  401. 16:58had being abandoned you know I saw what
  402. 17:01was going to happen you know immediately
  403. 17:04I said Jesus we are dead we are
  404. 17:06condemned we're going to die and this is
  405. 17:08going to be
  406. 17:09horrible you know imagine dying inside
  407. 17:13that fuselage you know of starvation
  408. 17:15cold fear what could happen this is
  409. 17:18going to be
  410. 17:19hell so I looked to the mountains and I
  411. 17:21said I'm going to die but I'll try to
  412. 17:24die
  413. 17:26um nobler or um
  414. 17:30if there's a better way to die you know
  415. 17:33I'm going to die but I'm going to die
  416. 17:34fighting trying to get out of here and
  417. 17:38that's what I instantly just happened to
  418. 17:40me seconds after I listen to that on the
  419. 17:43radio whereas for some several other
  420. 17:45people with you they just said no don't
  421. 17:48don't leave don't go it doesn't make any
  422. 17:49more sense it's no more noble to go no
  423. 17:53and that's why I always try to tell in
  424. 17:56my conferences that nobody knows the way
  425. 17:58they would react yeah and it's
  426. 18:00fascinating for the people to think how
  427. 18:02would I have reacted there you know
  428. 18:05and nobody knows nobody
  429. 18:08knows instantly I looked at the
  430. 18:11mountains but a few minutes later an
  431. 18:14intense
  432. 18:15fear caught me you know because I knew I
  433. 18:19was dying I knew there was no way
  434. 18:21out we didn't have had any food
  435. 18:24for four days already and the last food
  436. 18:27I had was a peanut one peanut you know
  437. 18:32and the cold The Thirst the hunger and
  438. 18:35now the confirmation that we were
  439. 18:37condemned to die that puts your mind in
  440. 18:40a in a different level puts your mind on
  441. 18:42a kind of stress that's very uncommon to
  442. 18:46find on on society nowadays you can lose
  443. 18:49your job your house can burn down you
  444. 18:52know you can crush your car you
  445. 18:55can you know break a leg but it's this
  446. 18:59is your dead yeah the choices that we
  447. 19:02make or the things that we face in life
  448. 19:04are often quite abstract now there's no
  449. 19:06relationship necessarily between what
  450. 19:08you do today and whether you live today
  451. 19:09but for you it it became very black and
  452. 19:11white very black and white yeah live or
  453. 19:13die including a very difficult decision
  454. 19:16to make about how you're going to feed
  455. 19:18yourselves
  456. 19:19yes and you know the or maybe not maybe
  457. 19:22not a difficult decision well not
  458. 19:24difficult for us it's I think it's a
  459. 19:27quite an interesting question or
  460. 19:30subject seen from the outside but on the
  461. 19:34global aspect of our
  462. 19:36survival if you have a circle that's
  463. 19:39just you know maybe 30% we had to deal
  464. 19:43with all the other 70% of of you know
  465. 19:47climate water
  466. 19:50cold uh thirst depression fear you get
  467. 19:55very afraid uh decision making and you
  468. 19:59have to decide when to go and how to go
  469. 20:01and where to go mhm it's like being
  470. 20:03dropped in the middle of the ocean and
  471. 20:05say okay which way do I swim you have to
  472. 20:07decide so that decision came very
  473. 20:11naturally I it's it
  474. 20:13just Falls in a slot and it's cluck
  475. 20:17Jesus that's the decision it's so
  476. 20:19naturally made that everybody started to
  477. 20:22think about it at the same moment but
  478. 20:25it's it's aren't some of the decisions
  479. 20:27that you had to make more moral
  480. 20:29decisions than other ones and doesn't
  481. 20:30that complicate them a little bit more
  482. 20:31no no not to me I mean maybe not
  483. 20:34everybody has the same character and the
  484. 20:36same
  485. 20:37personality but um I think I I was
  486. 20:42educated in a way
  487. 20:44that I always looked at the way my
  488. 20:48father reacted into some situations and
  489. 20:51he always told me you know things are
  490. 20:52black and white you know and he was not
  491. 20:56very religious he said okay if you need
  492. 20:59money you have to work if you are
  493. 21:01thirsty you have to drink water if you
  494. 21:03have to get there you have to walk or
  495. 21:05take a bus or drive the car you know he
  496. 21:08was a very simple man in his thoughts
  497. 21:11but very efficient you know don't look
  498. 21:13for things that don't exist so I said
  499. 21:16okay I have to
  500. 21:18eat I have to eat something and the only
  501. 21:22proteins that we have are the dead
  502. 21:23bodies of our
  503. 21:24friends and uh it's a thought that comes
  504. 21:28very very simply to your mind after
  505. 21:31remember not sitting here somebody
  506. 21:34watching this this tape you have been
  507. 21:36stranded on a glacia for 12 days you
  508. 21:39have
  509. 21:40been hoping for rescue which never came
  510. 21:44and then they answered by the radio that
  511. 21:46you were abandoned so now you're afraid
  512. 21:50thirsty freezing so hungry you cannot
  513. 21:54imagine
  514. 21:56desperate and you're going to die so at
  515. 21:58least let's do something yet you did
  516. 22:00draw the line at the bodies of your
  517. 22:02mother and your sister I didn't draw the
  518. 22:05line I said which is very difficult to
  519. 22:08put somebody in my mind at the
  520. 22:10moment when we started the track out
  521. 22:13which was a track that now I am alive
  522. 22:16now it's easy you know when you read the
  523. 22:18newspaper on the Mondays you know who
  524. 22:19won the game on Sunday MH no so I'm
  525. 22:22alive but when I started that track
  526. 22:24which was 50 miles across the whole
  527. 22:26Landes I never knew I was going to get
  528. 22:28there
  529. 22:2999% I thought I was going to die and I
  530. 22:32told the guys look if you have to do it
  531. 22:35you have to do it but I knew also that
  532. 22:39if that moment had come that would be
  533. 22:43the last that would be the hell the end
  534. 22:47you know there were those were the last
  535. 22:49two bodies what happens after that yeah
  536. 22:51what happens okay I'm gone they use the
  537. 22:54bodies of my mother and my sister and
  538. 22:56then what happens I'm not going to be
  539. 22:58there I'll be dead on a glacier but not
  540. 23:00there and maybe I saw the script of this
  541. 23:04story ending in that way I was not going
  542. 23:06to be there and maybe the script also
  543. 23:08includes you would you know by by making
  544. 23:11the decision to leave you also avoid the
  545. 23:13decision making of course I if I have to
  546. 23:16do that that's the end of the line yeah
  547. 23:19you know that's the end of line I what
  548. 23:22happens after that
  549. 23:24M there's no more future it's death
  550. 23:28immediately it's
  551. 23:30because we would be so weak at that time
  552. 23:35we would be walking carasses you know MH
  553. 23:38because that would be three or four
  554. 23:39weeks after maybe yeah three weeks
  555. 23:43later what would happen and so many of
  556. 23:47the decisions that you ended up having
  557. 23:49to make you build in in your story
  558. 23:51around family and and the uh another
  559. 23:54point that you make in the book quite
  560. 23:55strongly is your sense that the opposite
  561. 23:57of of death is love not life and that it
  562. 24:00really was your father as the other
  563. 24:03person in your family poll that that
  564. 24:04pulled you back to civilization again
  565. 24:07somehow that's the way that you decided
  566. 24:08to to keep moving can you tell us about
  567. 24:11that there were so many moments that I
  568. 24:13was so close to death you know the plane
  569. 24:16crashed I was knocked my head out the
  570. 24:18plane fell down the Avalanche you know
  571. 24:21so many things then we climbed all these
  572. 24:23mountains and I look to the west and we
  573. 24:24are at almost 18,000 177,000 ft and some
  574. 24:30and that's when I realized that you
  575. 24:32think that life is the Eternal thing
  576. 24:35that's the most important thing in the
  577. 24:36word and when you see death so close and
  578. 24:38you are confirmed that you're going to
  579. 24:41die you just realize that life
  580. 24:45is it's a second that the eternity is
  581. 24:47death that the real thing that exists is
  582. 24:50death not life you know we think that we
  583. 24:53are going to live forever and suddenly
  584. 24:55when you confront yourself with death so
  585. 24:57many times and you touch her and she
  586. 25:01grabs you and you know I was theread
  587. 25:04three or four times without any hope
  588. 25:07whatsoever and I lived I shouldn't be
  589. 25:09here by any means I shouldn't be here
  590. 25:11and then I realized that life is not
  591. 25:13Eternal we think and suddenly I'm there
  592. 25:16at8 almost 18,000 ft looking to the West
  593. 25:19surrounded by mountains and say I'm dead
  594. 25:22I thought I would live forever but the
  595. 25:24real eternity is death you know and how
  596. 25:27can I fight against this death what's
  597. 25:30the most important thing for me it's not
  598. 25:32life life will be gone it's love the
  599. 25:34love for the people I love the love that
  600. 25:36keeps me going to my father the love
  601. 25:38that now I feel for my daughters for my
  602. 25:40wife for my friends that's the most
  603. 25:42important thing in life money power what
  604. 25:47for I mean you can work I work I like
  605. 25:50the best things in life but I wouldn't
  606. 25:52jeopardise my family and my friends and
  607. 25:54my the love and my dog I love my dogs
  608. 25:58for more power more money I have enough
  609. 26:02what's interesting to me is that you
  610. 26:03would go through all of those
  611. 26:06chances and still enter into a world in
  612. 26:09race car driving where you're putting
  613. 26:11yourself back on the line again how yeah
  614. 26:13how do you understand
  615. 26:15that it's a very complex thing to
  616. 26:19understand my father he was the
  617. 26:21president of a uian racing drivers Club
  618. 26:23his passion was racing cars he took me
  619. 26:26to a racetrack when since I was 2 or 3
  620. 26:29years old you know so I was bred into
  621. 26:32racing and I love the smell and the
  622. 26:34noise and everything and I wanted to
  623. 26:36race cars but I didn't dare you know was
  624. 26:39too dangerous to my father always wanted
  625. 26:41to race but he he thought was too
  626. 26:44dangerous you know he loved the sport
  627. 26:45but I really wanted to race but then I
  628. 26:47crashed in the airplane and I came back
  629. 26:50and I lived and I said Jesus I almost
  630. 26:52never I almost died and never did what
  631. 26:55for me was so important M it could have
  632. 26:58been being playing tennis being a lawyer
  633. 27:00playing chess being a painter being a
  634. 27:04doctor but was racing cars so I said I'm
  635. 27:08going to do it because this is very
  636. 27:10important to
  637. 27:11me and it was such a big decision that
  638. 27:13because I started
  639. 27:15racing I met my wife in Europe and I
  640. 27:18have a beautiful family because I
  641. 27:20started racing but I didn't start racing
  642. 27:21thinking I'm Immortal because I survive
  643. 27:25a plane crash no no I approach racing
  644. 27:27with the utmost ECT techn
  645. 27:30technicality knowledge it's an art it's
  646. 27:33like any profession that you have to
  647. 27:35train dedicate study know and I enjoy
  648. 27:40it it's kind of a liberty at a terrible
  649. 27:43price isn't it Nando I mean you've
  650. 27:44you've been freed up through this
  651. 27:46experience in a way that most of the
  652. 27:47rest of us in our lives would never ever
  653. 27:49be able to Freed it up is is that been
  654. 27:52true for other people that were there as
  655. 27:54well the other
  656. 27:56survivors yeah I would say that some of
  657. 27:58the guys three or four or five more than
  658. 28:00others not
  659. 28:02everybody has this behaves in the same
  660. 28:04way on the same situations but uh I
  661. 28:08would say that you know Roberto Gustavo
  662. 28:11those are guys that probably you see
  663. 28:13them once and you there are like any
  664. 28:15people any person you you meet but I
  665. 28:19live with them they are my friends and I
  666. 28:21know that they are free guys you know
  667. 28:23Roberto especially he's very free he's
  668. 28:25a a guy that uh
  669. 28:28um a lot of energy power and there no
  670. 28:32limits for him mhm I lost everything
  671. 28:35andt I I lost my family my future my
  672. 28:37studies everything I had I was an animal
  673. 28:40on a
  674. 28:41glazure so I'm not afraid of losing
  675. 28:44everything because I already lost it mhm
  676. 28:47I know what's to be condemned to die
  677. 28:50without anything you know and to be
  678. 28:54blessed with the chance to have a life
  679. 28:58and a family and friends and dogs people
  680. 29:01say this guy speaks about dogs I mean I
  681. 29:03love my dogs you know and how much I
  682. 29:07would have given 3 4 years ago to have a
  683. 29:09house with
  684. 29:10dogs one of the um one of the things
  685. 29:13that along the line that we were just
  686. 29:15speaking about though that that really
  687. 29:17strikes me in the way that you look back
  688. 29:19now and particularly the way that you
  689. 29:21talk about this to other people is that
  690. 29:22you
  691. 29:23say don't call me a hero don't say I
  692. 29:26succeeded don't call this Glory to have
  693. 29:28succeeded because as you put it it was
  694. 29:30nothing more than ugliness fear and
  695. 29:33Desperation yeah I I have understood all
  696. 29:36through these years
  697. 29:38that people because I look at people and
  698. 29:42I think they are the way I think they
  699. 29:44are you know and seeing from the outside
  700. 29:47things look different you know I didn't
  701. 29:50want to be there yeah you know I just
  702. 29:53had to do what I had to do and I
  703. 29:55succeeded by chance by God by whatever
  704. 29:59happened and seen from the
  705. 30:02outside people say oh these guys were so
  706. 30:05courageous and they conquered what's not
  707. 30:08conquerable and they did this epic
  708. 30:11Traverse of the Andes and they survived
  709. 30:13two and a half months on a glacier how
  710. 30:15fantastic I say how horrible I it was so
  711. 30:19ugly you know so stressful I was so
  712. 30:22afraid there Jeff I can tell you so
  713. 30:24afraid that the fear is in your stomach
  714. 30:26it never goes away never you're always
  715. 30:29tense you
  716. 30:30know and I remember when I got to a
  717. 30:34hospital helicopters dropped me into a
  718. 30:36hospital they take my clothes off they
  719. 30:38cut my clothes off and they wash me and
  720. 30:40they make some tests on me and they put
  721. 30:42me on a bed that was the first time in
  722. 30:4673 days that I relaxed my muscles you
  723. 30:52know it's the fear it's never ending and
  724. 30:56from the outside looks like Cor
  725. 30:59you know and I I never thought about the
  726. 31:02word courage there I every time through
  727. 31:05that track every day every night I say
  728. 31:07how am I going to die the only thought I
  729. 31:10had in my mind
  730. 31:11was how does it feel to fall from 2,000
  731. 31:14ft and crash against a rock you know
  732. 31:17will I freeze at night will I die of
  733. 31:20hunger the only question was how will I
  734. 31:23meet my death that was the only one I
  735. 31:26had so if if you weren't
  736. 31:28with all you went through if you weren't
  737. 31:29courageous if you weren't heroic what do
  738. 31:31you think a courageous hero looks like
  739. 31:35maybe they don't exist I don't
  740. 31:37know I think
  741. 31:40that uh everybody is a hero when they
  742. 31:43have
  743. 31:44to confront a situation that really puts
  744. 31:48them to the test I'm sure that you if I
  745. 31:52don't know if you have a family you have
  746. 31:53a daughters Sons or something
  747. 31:56happens something arises from inside you
  748. 31:59if somebody wants to harm them that you
  749. 32:02when these things happen limit
  750. 32:03situations you you yield to what you
  751. 32:07have beneath MH and sometimes you don't
  752. 32:10want to find what you have
  753. 32:12inside cuz it sure strikes from the
  754. 32:14outside that your
  755. 32:16journey all the way through it was a
  756. 32:18journey of
  757. 32:21will I can accept
  758. 32:24that and with Roberto when we were at
  759. 32:27the hostal
  760. 32:28hosital and he looked at me and he said
  761. 32:32it was tough no I said yeah but we made
  762. 32:35it no so it was that was the last
  763. 32:39sentence that we had over there at the
  764. 32:41hospital
  765. 32:44Jesus what Stu yeah but here we are you
  766. 32:48know so that's was those are some of the
  767. 32:52most beautiful moments that I remember
  768. 32:54you know when you look at your friend
  769. 32:56you have died with him and
  770. 32:58we made it yeah and it it was tough
  771. 33:01maybe the understatement of the century
  772. 33:03it was tough it was simply Jesus it was
  773. 33:06tough though yeah but we made
  774. 33:08it great thank you thank you

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