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## The Geography of the Miracle
One element of the survival story that is worth examining in some detail is the geography of where they were and what that meant for the rescue.
The crash site was in the Andes on the Argentine side of the border with Chile, in Mendoza Province. The specific location is in the glacial valley of the Glaciar de las Lágrimas — the Glacier of Tears — a name it acquired after the crash. The valley is at approximately 3,660 to 3,675 meters above sea level, in terrain that is remote even by Andean standards.
The white fuselage on the white glacier was essentially invisible from the air to search aircraft flying at cruising altitude. The search pilots who overflew the area in the first days after the crash were not negligent; they were facing a genuine visual camouflage problem. An aircraft painted in military white against snow is extremely difficult to spot from altitude. The survivors’ attempts to signal — their SOS spelled out in luggage, the cross they made from debris — were not visible at the altitude and speed at which search aircraft operated.
The route that Parrado and Canessa took west from the crash site crossed into Chilean territory and descended through the high Andes to the foothills of Chile’s O’Higgins Region. The distance they covered is estimated at approximately 60 kilometers in straight-line terms, but the actual terrain required significantly more travel — climbing over ridges, descending into valleys, navigating around obstacles. They did this in ten days, without proper equipment, while malnourished and in deteriorating physical condition.