While Roy Harley was missing the friends he saw pass away on the mountain, his children helped bring him the joy he was lacking. He was proud of his children and how they conducted themselves. Roy talked about his children in such a beautiful way. What he survived through was not the point, but rather for the character of his children and the others’ children, to have become what it has, he had to have lived those experiences.

I tend to unconsciously think of the survivors as before, during, and after, but really those paths are interconnected in a way that can’t ever be separated. Carlitos Páez relapsed as an alcoholic and a drug addict, left addicted just as he was before the plane crashed. He choose to justify his decisions to pick up the bottle because of what he lived through, not only in the cordillera, but before when he witnessed his parents divorce. But he stated, “Instead of letting the misfortune bury me I was able to turn it into a gift.” Just as Roy has seen his children as a gift, Carlitos saw his misfortunes as a gift.

Roy began to ask himself how the cordillera changed him. He realized that the things he learned and came to appreciate were gifts in and of themselves. He came to appreciate the simple things, laughter and thankfulness, and the stability his time on the mountain brought him. It changed his view on life: “if you walk for seventy-two days on a paper-thin railing, you find it comfortable and easy to live on a ledge.” From there, he came to the realization that even as the survivors shared their experiences on the mountain, no one could truly understand what they had lived through. Those feelings belonged to the survivors,’ and only those who lived through it, could recognize its meaning.

Pedro Algorta had a unique perspective on what happened in the mountains during those 72 days, one differing from the others. It was interesting hearing how his view of these things changed once he was off the mountain and had time to mull it over, without the lingering fear of death and starvation. “We lived from moment to moment without being able to ask ourselves if what we were doing was good or bad, because if we wanted to do what was necessary to live another hour we couldn’t stop to think too deeply about it.”

Pedro stated that while on the mountain, he didn’t feel much of anything. Whereas most of the others talked about the connectivity and brotherhood they formed, Pedro didn’t shy away from the fact that they did what they had to in order to survive. He admitted he didn’t feel like friends to any of the boys he survived with and that instead, he choose to focus on his individuality, crediting that on his survival, just as the others talk about living for their family and friends. It doesn’t mean what they created wasn’t real, but rather it was a pact made alongside the primitive elements of man and one person’s fight for survival, that may have just looked a little bit different from the rest.

Pedro’s words brought a new look into what the survivors went through, and I appreciated his honestly throughout it all. Even when he returned from the mountain, he choose to live in solitude, away from the life that was forced on him, as he had every right to do. But, he came to the understanding that even if he didn’t speak about his experience on the mountain, others would discuss the events surrounding it and there was nothing he could do about that. Just the very fact that he was alive was an inspiration for others going through struggles of their own, giving them a reason to hope and to move forward despite it all.

There is no greater love than giving your life for you friends.” The survivors never wanted to be put on a pedestal. When the book talked about the press wanting them to lie about what they had done, when “the first thing we learned up on the mountain, was to tell the truth,” it was hard to stomach. The fact that the press wanted them to censor their lived experience, made me glad they choose to stand behind their truth. And hearing how Gustavo Zerbino meticulously wrote down where each body was buried so family and friends would be able to find their remains if they went searching, how could anyone say they didn’t care?

It makes me happy to know that although their decision to eat the bodies of those who didn’t make it off the mountain was met with hesitation by some, the survivors had the families of those who didn’t make it off the mountain, standing by them. They deserved support, not to be shamed for the choices they had to make in order to survive. What they lived through, what they did, helped them to learn powerful lessons. They came away from it with more love than ever before. What they did to survive doesn’t make them any less deserving of respect or compassion.

This whole book is making me want to cry, knowing what they went through, what they were forced to endure; but them choosing to take that and tell their story was powerful. Hearing the words from the survivors, “The only thing we have to say is that each person is capable of achieving the same thing we did if they set out to overcome the slope and escape their own cordillera.” This was such a hard read, albeit such a beautiful message, especially for those struggling. The fact that they’re basically saying, ‘You can do it, set your mind to it and you can break free. It may not be quick or simple, but you’ll get there eventually, just as we did.’ I almost lost it right then and there.

I’ve been reading this book, not really thinking much about age, and it hit me how young some of them were. These boys, some of them as young 18, lived through the worst months of their lives. They beat the odds to survive 72 grueling days, in one of the most physically hostile places on earth. But still they found hope to cling on to. Remembering their friends and family, knowing they had something or someone to return to is what kept them alive.

Listening to how they talk about eating the bodies of their friends, I don’t even have words; when they came to realize they had no other choice, when everyone slowly came to agree knowing that that is what they would have to do to survive. And how even though they made this decision, they still chose to respect the dead by not putting names or faces to the bodies they ate.

Many of the survivors choose not to speak about what they had been through, but something changed when they realized that their experiences could be beneficial to others who had gone through unspeakable terrors of their own. “ They need strength and inspiration to process the tragedies which rest on all our shoulders.” The survivors became that for many people when they choose to put themselves out there.

Álvaro Mangino said, “ Despite everything, I know well that you should not look only behind you, you should look inside yourself too.” The survivors aren’t the same people who crashed that fateful day in the Andes, they never will be, but the lessons they learned during those 72 days will stick with them as long as they live. I admire them for their strength and willingness to share their story with others.