The avalanche killed eight people and reduced the group from 27 to nineteen survivors. It also fundamentally changed the dynamic of the group. Marcelo Pérez, the team captain who had served as the primary organizer, was dead. Several other organizers and morale-keepers were gone. The survivors who remained were psychologically as well as physically depleted.
Javier Methol had watched his wife Liliana die in the avalanche. He was 36 years old, the oldest person in the group, and he had just lost his wife and his traveling companion to a natural disaster while he survived. By every account of those who were with him, Methol maintained a remarkable composure and continued to contribute to the group’s collective effort throughout the remaining weeks. His presence — calm, experienced, committed to everyone’s survival — was described by multiple survivors as a stabilizing force in the period after the avalanche.
The dead from the avalanche were also, by the grim logic of survival, additional resources for the group that remained. This was understood without being stated.
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## November: The Tail Section and the Radio Attempt
In mid-November, after the blizzard had passed and conditions had improved enough for movement, some of the survivors set out to find the tail section of the aircraft.
The tail had separated from the fuselage during the crash and come to rest somewhere down the glacier. The survivors had seen it in the distance from the beginning but had not had the ability or resources to reach it in the first weeks. As the escape plan became the primary focus, the tail section became important: it had been the rear of the aircraft, and therefore had potentially contained luggage, supplies, and — critically — the aircraft’s batteries.