{"id":582963,"date":"2025-11-20T17:27:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/582963\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T17:27:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:27:39","slug":"our-holiday-turned-into-a-horror-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/582963\/","title":{"rendered":"Our holiday turned into a \u2018horror film\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A survivor of the blizzard which killed a British woman and four others in Chilean Patagonia has described the \u201csuffocating\u201d snowstorm that turned a steep rocky mountainside into \u201csheet ice\u201d with near-zero visibility.<\/p>\n

Christian Aldridge, from Newquay, Cornwall, told The Times from his hospital bed in Chile: \u201cI think we all thought we were not getting out of this. It felt like we were in a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that park rangers should have assessed the weather to decide whether to close the treacherous route they were taking, but were not working on the day of the incident because of mandatory voting in Chile\u2019s presidential election<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mauricio Ruiz, regional director of Conaf, Chile\u2019s national forestry corporation, which employs the park\u2019s rangers, told local news media \u201cthe day was a bad coincidence because it coincided with the vote\u201d. He said the violent blizzard was \u201cunpredictable, we had no way of knowing\u201d and suggested radical weather variations were becoming more common due to climate change.<\/p>\n

Victoria Bond, 40, from Truro, died<\/a> in the Torres del Paine national park on Monday along with Nadine Lichey and Andreas Von Pein from Germany and Cristina Calvillo Tovar and Julian Garcia Pimentel from Mexico.<\/p>\n

Bond, a PR manager for the Visit Isles of Scilly tourism organisation, had recently begun a new romantic relationship before heading off on a three-week holiday with friends in South America.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had been searching for someone for a long time and they were perfect for each other. It\u2019s so sad,\u201d Aldridge said.<\/p>\n

Bond and Aldridge, 41, a TV director and producer, were hoping to complete the O Circuit hiking trail, an unguided 85-mile trek that takes eight days, with three other British friends. Also on the trip was Hayley Newnham, 41, a PR agency owner, Matt Smith, 39, a sports coach developer, and Tom Player, 39, a composer. They were all \u201csemi-experienced hikers who have done Himalayan treks up to 5,500m\u201d who had met through the same co-working space in Newquay. <\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

The group of friends in Chile<\/p>\n

On November 17, the fourth day of their hike, the five were part of a larger group of about 30 as they passed through the arduous John Gardner Pass. <\/p>\n

It was while at the highest point of the trek, at 1,200m (3,900ft), that a blizzard swept through, turning the soft snow on the jagged mountainside to ice. Reuters later reported that the area was struck by wind speeds surpassing 193km\/h (120mph), equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it very difficult to convey how horrific it was,\u201d Aldridge said. \u201cIt was suffocating, wind so powerful that you had to sit down and curl into a ball and turn your back to it so it didn\u2019t knock you down the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t breathe with the ice and snow blowing so much in my face and then attempting to go up a very steep climb. It was just too many things at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were two miles from their base camp and the large group of trekkers decided the safest thing to do was continue climbing for another mile or so in the hope of reaching a refuge. They would later discover it had been shut because park rangers had left to cast their mandatory votes in a presidential election<\/a> the day before.<\/p>\n

With conditions worsening, the group decided to abandon the trek for the refuge and attempt the treacherous descent back to the Los Perros camp, which they had left at 5.30am that morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very difficult to make the decision but as we went on we thought this is too dangerous, we are not going to make the pass,\u201d Aldridge said.<\/p>\n

Descending in a line, barely able to see the person in front and behind them at times, they began the arduous hours-long journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing down that mountain was sheet ice,\u201d Aldridge said. \u201cI fell and slid down the mountain and just kept going and I thought, \u2018I am gone, I am definitely gone\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just picking up more and more speed and I thought I can\u2019t keep accelerating like this [and survive]. I aimed for some rocks to break the speed to stop me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI flipped over and I was lucky because I could have hit my head but I didn\u2019t and it did stop me. I saw the line of people coming down and they shouted, \u2018Are you OK?\u2019 and I put my hand up. Other people were sliding down the mountain as well. It was chaos. You couldn\u2019t see much. Visibility was very poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we could focus on was the person in front of us and stay in a line and go down. It was very difficult to make sure everyone was accounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldridge said the blizzard worsened as they descended, until visibility was almost zero. \u201cThis was deadly. I think all of us thought we were not getting out of this,\u201d he added. His glasses froze, while his gloves became torn and saturated with freezing water. <\/p>\n

Aldridge said there \u201cwasn\u2019t screaming and shouting\u201d in the group and people helped each other through the pain and exhaustion. An American gave Aldridge one of his walking poles and created makeshift gloves out of socks to protect his frostbitten hands.<\/p>\n

He does not know who was the last person to see Bond alive.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

Bond, 40, was separated from the group during the descent<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all together at the point where I fell and slipped down the mountain,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw her then and after that I didn\u2019t see her.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Aldridge got to a relatively safer location he managed to regroup with some of the rest of the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend thought maybe Victoria was behind us,\u201d he said. \u201cA couple said they were the last ones and there was no one above them. We went back just to check and couldn\u2019t see anyone else and carried on down, hoping she was at the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only when they reached base camp that they realised there were people missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was at that point we had to organise our own search party because the park authorities didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d Aldridge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe camp staff didn\u2019t have any record of who had gone up or down or even who had registered at the camp, so we had to group together and work out who was missing and then work out who was capable and fit to go back up. I wasn\u2019t in any state to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

They sent two of their group and a member of the camp staff in the first rescue team.<\/p>\n

The first person they found was a Mexican woman who was responsive but could not stand up. Using satellite communication the rescue team sent their location to the base camp.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

The group of friends in Buenos Aires before their trek in Chile. From left, Hayley Newnham, Matt Smith, Aldridge, Bond and Tom Player<\/p>\n

A team of five people took a homemade stretcher made from \u201csleeping mats and tarpaulin and walking sticks tied together with twine\u201d to the woman. She was brought down but suffered a fatal cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

After it transpired that there was a stretcher in a locked storeroom belonging to Conaf, the body that runs Chile\u2019s national parks, but camp staff did not have access to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Mexican man, who we believe was her husband, was found by us face down and deceased and a German woman was found responsive and conscious but very hypothermic and confused,\u201d Aldridge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend found her and gave her hot water and wrapped her up in three sleeping bags. They were trying to bring a tent to her because she couldn\u2019t move but the conditions were too dangerous to reach them with the tent. She died on the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bodies of Bond and the German man were not found until the next day by park rangers.<\/p>\n

A 24-strong rescue team, including park rangers, soldiers and an alpine rescue unit, was dispatched to the zone on foot and horseback on Tuesday, the authorities in Chile\u2019s southern Ultima Esperanza province said. The weather initially made air operations impossible.<\/p>\n

Aldridge said the situation was not initially treated with \u201cany urgency\u201d by the camp staff or the Chilean authorities.<\/p>\n

\"Rescue<\/p>\n

Rescue teams found five bodies in the aftermath of the snowstorm<\/p>\n

CHILE\u2019S CARABINEROS\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\"Rescue<\/p>\n

CHILE\u2019S CARABINEROS\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a very long time to get the gravity of the situation across to them. It was mad. It was mad that we had to organise our search party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day the survivors walked six miles to the lower Dickson camp and hoped for rescue, but Aldridge said that the authorities told them to \u201cwalk out of there, which would have been a three-day hike\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody had been through a very-near-death experience and people had injuries,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were five fatalities which we know and the authorities were leaving us there to our own devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon the survivors were eventually taken from Dickson camp by helicopter to a hospital in Puerto Natales, the nearest town.<\/p>\n

Aldridge, who suffered frostbite to his hands, said the four surviving members of their holiday party were in shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like we were in a nightmare which we were going to wake up from,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been going through absolute emotions, from hysterical crying to guilt because we feel like we let [Bond] down and then sometimes gratitude that we survived. Since it happened we haven\u2019t left each other\u2019s side until now, when they have put us in different hospital beds.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the helicopter came to take us we walked out and looked at the mountain and said some words about our friend Victoria and had big ugly cries. It\u2019s like being in a horror film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldridge is adamant the John Gardner Pass should have been closed because there were no rangers present in the national park to monitor and advise on the weather conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe followed the official trail and the planned itinerary, and we set off from Los Perros after being repeatedly told the route was open and safe,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Conaf said it would review the safety and communication protocols in the park. <\/p>\n

V\u00e9rtice, the company which manages the campsites inside the national park, did not immediately respond to the criticism by Aldridge that the camp workers were slow to react to the unfolding disaster, or that they did not keep track of who had left the camp and was therefore missing.<\/p>\n

The company said in a statement to The Times: \u201cWe are deeply affected by this tragedy, the most serious in terms of human lives lost in Torres del Paine national park. Since Monday, when the tragedy occurred, we have been in contact with the authorities and have offered our full support.\u201d<\/p>\n

M\u00f3nica Zalaquett, executive president of the federation of tourism companies of Chile, said that risk management and the proper administration of the country\u2019s adventure tourism territories must be an \u201cabsolute priority\u201d for the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature tourism is a strategic asset for Chile,\u201d she told local media. \u201cWe cannot allow deficiencies in the management of our protected areas to endanger human lives or damage the international reputation of our destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A survivor of the blizzard which killed a British woman and four others in Chilean Patagonia has described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-582963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115583206508483175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}