The ESA’s educational documentation of the route uses satellite imagery to show the path from crash site to Catalán’s location. The terrain is unambiguously difficult. The elevation changes required during the trek — climbing 800 meters above an already-high crash site before descending thousands of meters to the foothills — represent a physical challenge that experienced mountaineers with full equipment would treat with considerable respect.
The Catalán family farm was not far, in straight-line terms, from the Chilean side of the mountains. The distance between the crash site and the nearest Chilean settlement accessible to helicopters was the reason rescue had seemed so impossible throughout the ordeal. The mountains were simultaneously the barrier that had nearly killed everyone and the terrain that rescue helicopters were able to navigate once they knew exactly where to go.
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## Javier Methol and the Question of Faith
Among all sixteen survivors, Javier Methol occupies a particular place in the story because of what he had lost and how he carried it.
Methol was 36 years old when the crash occurred — by some accounts the oldest person on the aircraft excluding some of the crew. He had brought his wife Liliana to the trip. They were traveling together, as a couple, on what was meant to be a weekend rugby trip to Santiago.
Liliana Methol died in the avalanche on October 29. She was held by her husband when the snow came. She suffocated. Her body remained in the fuselage, covered by snow, in the same space where her husband continued to live for another 55 days.