This is Stella Maris College's "Old Christians" rugby union team. And this is also the team that made the most awesome escape that I have ever read of.
And trust me, I read a lot
The team was in a plane to Chile, where they were supposed to play against a bunch of other guys. However, due to thick cloud cover, the plane have to rely solely on their now-archaric instruments. this proved to be a fatal mistake and the pilot turned much earlier than he should. This cause the plane in nosedived into the second most inhospitable place on earth after the mighty Himalayans - The Andes.
Reading a simple article on wikipedia just does not truely illustrate how desolate and forsaken this wasteland is. I stumbled upon an autobiographical account while I was trying to mug in HSSML and spent the next 7 hours reading it, straight till the library closed.
Anyway they crashed into the middle to nowhere. More specifically, 34º46'S 070º17'W. Go check it out on google earth. There were several immediate problems. Firstly, when the plane crashed, all the seats got ripped off their braces with such an explosive force they got stacked up in the front of the plane, crushing anyone between it. The lucky ones died, the ones who can say 'oh fuck' are the ones with multiple fractures and raptured organs.
The second problem was the extreme brutal cold and dryness. I have been to both Melbourne and Korea so I can attest to the biting cold of winter. However, those places were populated, sea-level, and near the coast, so it really isn't much of a comparison.
The Andes, also known as the bitter roof of the latin world, are so freaking high that planes can only cross at 3 passes. Notice how the sky turns dark at this altitude.
Other than the biting cold (none of them had winter clothing of any sort. They were dressed for the tropical Chile weather in shorts and singlets), these guys had no eye protection at all. Nothing to protect the thin layer of moisture on their eyes from freezing and permanently scarring the cornea.
To further complicate matter, snowfall around the entire mountain range had been heavy. This caused snowdepth to be so deep that anyone who steps in the show would immediately sink into it up his hips. This made walking out of the plane impossible.
The planed carried 45 people. 29 died on impact. The plane had its wings clipped, one of which sliced through the fuselage (main body) like knife through butter. This caused the back half of the plane to separate from the front.
This also mean the majority of survivors did not have access to their luggage.
So there was no food, no water, no medicine, no communications (no handphones back in the 70s darling) and no way to get out.
However among the survivors, one man was instrumental to their survival. Adolfo "Fito" Strauch was a young man during the crash. But a brilliant one he is. He made water making devices, snow boots, snow goggles and even a primitive transistor radio from parts of plane seats.
Another man was Roberto Canessa. He was only a sophormore medical student. But during the time they were trapped up there, he performed gastrointestinal operations, bone setting and other curative procedures. He used broken glass as his scalpel and plane wire for stitches (They did not even have thread)
To make the long story short, (i'm getting sleepy, go read the book if you want to find out more :P) these guys spent 70 days trapped up there. To solve their food problems, they cannabalised the dead. Under Canessa's instructions, they ate ever part, including the liver and brain which according to the medical student, was the only was to supplement their protein diet of human meat.
They did not really had a choice. At their altitude (5000meters),and temperature (-15 C) nothing survived, not even lichen.
They delegated tasks out and worked in teams to stay alive. One team was in charge of building a debris barracade every night to keep the freezing gale out. This team would also make any of the contraptions than Fido required.
Another team was in charge of food, and had to look for the dead (remember it is impossible to walk due to thick snowfall so these guys actually has to crawl their way around). Upon finding the dead, the dead would be buried, not for rest but for preservation. This is to ensure that they could survive as long as possible. (search operations were called off)
A team of expeditors were selected to look for a way out. They rested and conserved their limited energy for 3 months while Fido made mountaineering equipment for them, including the all important snowboots.
As they waited for spring (it was impossible to survive a winter night in the open), the team faced avalaches, snowgales, and depression.
On the 70th day in the bitter cold, Canessa and another guy called Parrado set out. They knew Chile was to the west, so they headed that way. They scaled mountains of 75 degrees incline (holy shit!) on their way out. When they reached the top of their first mountain, they saw more mountains as far as the eye can see.
Just when they were about to give up hope, the brillant Canessa noticed that a few of the mountains lit up in the setting sun. Since the sun sets in the west, this meant that there was nothing blocking those mountains in the west, which was the direction of chile.
In the end, they got rescued. My expository here does no justice to the ingenuity of the team. Read more at HSSML if you are interested haha.
Salute!
http://www.viven.com.uy/571/eng/default.asp