A personal story of survival, hope, and spiritual awakening in the face of unspeakable tragedy. It's the unfathomable modern legend that has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit: the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy-two days among the dead and dying. It was a harrowing test of endurance on a snowbound cordillera that ended in a miraculous rescue. Now comes the unflinching and emotional true story by one of the men who found his way home. Four decades after the tragedy, a climber discovered survivor Eduardo Strauch's wallet near the memorialized crash site and returned it to him. It was a gesture that compelled Strauch to finally "break the silence of the mountains." In this revelatory and rewarding memoir, Strauch withholds nothing as he reveals the truth behind the life-changing events that challenged him physically and tested him spiritually, but would never destroy him. In revisiting the horror story we thought we knew, Strauch shares the lessons gleaned from far outside the realm of rational learning: how surviving on the mountain, in the face of its fierce, unforgiving power and desolate beauty, forever altered his perception of love, friendship, death, fear, loss, and hope.

It was 13 October 1972. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, carrying a team of young rugby players, their families and friends, took off for the very last time. A deadly miscalculation saw F571 crash directly into the Andean mountains to devastating consequences: the body of the plane broke violently into two, its floor torn to smithereens; seats flew out of the air taking passengers with them. In the weeks that followed, the remaining people who were on board - the snow society - emerged to fight a dire, gruelling battle for survival. Waiting for a rescue team that didn't arrive, the survivors became fewer and fewer in numbers. Stranded alone on a glacier, they had to face brutal temperatures, lethal avalanches and the loss of friends and family with no access to supplies, food or water. In order to survive, they had to do the unthinkable . . . It wasn't until seventy-two days later that they were able to reach safety. Alarmingly gritty, moving and powerfully told, journalist Pablo Vierci recounts the unsettling stories of the sixteen survivors in intimate detail. Drawing on exclusive interviews, The Snow Society delves into the tragedy of the crash and how it radically redefined the rest of the survivors' lives. Ultimately, however, the book is a touching testament to the strength of faith, friendship, and the resilience of the human spirit.