Ignacio Valenzuela Moraga was a child when his father first told him the terrible story of a group of Uruguayan rugby players whose plane crashed into the Andes between Argentina and Chile. The story stuck with him and today the 44-year-old is a mountaineer who organises expeditions to the site of the tragedy, known as the “Valley of Tears”.
News of the plane crash on 13 October 1972, quickly spread across the world. The charter flight was carrying the team to a match in Santiago, the Chilean capital. Twenty-nine people died, but 16 managed to survive 72 days under the most precarious conditions, without food, adequate shelter, or medical supplies for the injured.
