Special Presentation

“I don't know if a reader or people sitting in a movie theater can really comprehend the cold that burns like acid and never ends, and the fear that you have inside. I think that what people see as courage, it's actually fear. I was so afraid, every minute. This wasn't heroism or adventure. This was hell.”
—Nando Parrado

Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days after his plane crashed in the Andes. The crash killed his sister and mother, as well as more than half of his 45 teammates and crewmembers. In the end, only 16 survived. Stuck on a 12,000-foot glacier, he and the other survivors were stranded. (Stranded is also the name of the edge-of-your seat doc).

Nando couldn’t stop thinking of his father and resolved to get home to see him—or die trying. Nando thought of himself as an ordinary young man with no particular inclination toward leadership or heroism. So he set out fully expecting to die—but to at least die in closer proximity to his father.

What he accomplished—leading an almost impossible expedition of two through the Andes Mountains, covering more than 45 miles of frozen wilderness—is now epic.
And remember, he did this without any gear, which may explain his words: “I have a sexual attraction to ice axes and crampons. Every time I go to an REI store, I let my hands slide through them. I think how much these tools would have saved me in time and danger during the trek. My wife, she tolerates it, but she tells me never to bring them to bed.”
We are thrilled to have Nando at Mountainfilm to walk us through his odyssey and take your questions.
- David Holbrooke