2023-09-24 08:00:00
During those minutes, he thought about his nephews that he would no longer see grow up. Also, in his parents. And above all, in the dreams that she had planned with her boyfriend, Adrián. Buried under tons of snow, Liliana Alonso felt some relief because she was still breathing, but she believed that death was coming for her.. It was only a matter of minutes. “I promise you that we will be together this time,” Adrián had assured him to accompany him. Elle had warned him that it was the last walk up the mountain.
The young man was less than a meter away from Liliana. Also, buried under the avalanche, on a slope of the Ventana hill. There, Adrián Mercado died, along with eight other first-year students studying Physical Education Teaching. with orientation in mountain activities from the National University of Comahue (Uncoma). The tragedy occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, September 1, 2002.
Liliana survived. She was buried under four meters of snow for around six hours. Twenty-one years later, Liliana told RÍO NEGRO her story on Cerro Ventana. She remains convinced that it was a miracle. That tragedy took her boyfriend away from her and caused a wound that took many years to begin to heal.
This newspaper located it a few days after commemorating the 21 years of one of the greatest tragedies in the mountains and for Uncoma. It is located in the town of Dawson City, in Yukon, Canada, near the Alaska border.
Liliana is from Bariloche, like her family. She remembers that in 2001 she returned to the city after spending a period abroad on exchange. She asked her mother to enroll her in a university degree, but that she should not be a Professor of Mathematics or Biology. By chance he joined the Physical Education Faculty, which had a mountain orientation.
When they started the course there were many students. “A lot of people from outside. The kids from the Valley had no idea what they were facing,” he asserts. He says that they were wearing jeans jackets and canvas sneakers.
The first exit was to the Horrible shelter. Some students had never camped before. New hikes to the mountains followed, as part of the race activities. The cold didn’t matter.
But Liliana affirms that by not having the necessary equipment “she was having a bad time.” In those first weeks He met Adrián, from Villa La Angostura. He was 21 years old, 1.95 meters tall, with overwhelming energy and a passion for the mountains. They understood each other, they began a relationship and planned the future together. In April, Liliana already doubted whether to continue in the race, Adrián encouraged her not to give up.
The first outing together
The teachers announced that they would go out on the weekend of August 31 and September 1, 2002 to Cerro Ventana. Liliana told her boyfriend that she would not go up. “I don’t want to go if we have a bad time, I told her,” she says. Furthermore, she reminded him that it was never their turn to be in the same group. “I promise you that we will be together this time,” Adrián assured him. That response was enough for the young woman to decide to join.
During the week it had rained heavily in the region, but on Friday the weather improved. And on Saturday around 75 students, 8 teachers, divided into two commissions, began the walk from the water intake in the El Pilar neighborhood.. The objective was to ascend to the summit of Cerro Ventana1910 meters high, located 16 kilometers from the center of Bariloche.
They began the walk with bright sunshine. They left in two commissions A and B. The first stop was at the El Horrible shelter, located at the end of a valley. The march had become difficult because there was a lot of snow. In some sectors, some students reached up to their waists.
The night came quietly and the group camped. That Sunday morning it didn’t freeze in the high mountains. At the head of the students was Andrés “Andi” Lamuniere. A renowned mountain guide from Bariloche. Liliana remembers that it was an authoritative voice that no first-year student could question.
In the mountains they did a snow arrest exercise. You had to go down a slope and learn the braking technique. “It was fun for us,” he says. But they were almost all wet. Very few had waterproof clothing.
He says Lamuniere was just watching. Liliana, worried, asked her why she didn’t jump in to show what the technique was like? “Why get wet,” she says was the response of the experienced guide.
Surprised, and somewhat annoyed, she stopped doing the exercise. Adrián wanted to know what was happening to him. She explained that they were getting too wet and that the clothes they had were not appropriate. “She only had ski pants, she didn’t have gaiters and the snow had gotten into her boots,” she points out.
Liliana remembers that they had argued with Adrián before. “That’s why, in the group photos (from that day) we are separated. He at one end and me at another place,” she explains. However, during the journey “we became friends.” It was the first time they were together and they couldn’t ask for more.
The tragedy
On Sunday, September 1, the groups divided. A headed towards Cerro Ñireco and B, with 46 students and Lamuniere at the head, headed towards Cerro Meta and then climbed the ridge towards the summit of Ventana.
He says that Adrián told him to join a group to walk faster. “Most of them were friends of Adrián, because my friends were in another group,” she says. They were tired. The groups had about 15 members.
The walk became a little more enjoyable because the groups were competing to see who moved the fastest. Liliana remembers that Gimena Padín walked slower due to a discomfort in her knee.
During the walk they passed through incredible places. They stopped to eat. The summit of Ventana was imposing. Then the groups began to descend. They followed Lamuniere, who went forward to inspect the ground. While they were waiting, “Martín Lemos threw himself on the snow to make the classic little angel,” says Liliana.
When the guide returned he informed them that there was a broken ledge and they would have to go one by one. It was a difficult passage through a steep, snow-covered valley. “I told Adrián: we both pass or we don’t pass,” he recalls. Before, they had already promised to take care of each other. “Lamuniere was very arrogant and no one dared to contradict him,” he says. Danger lurked. “I told Adrián: wait, Gimena is coming very far back.” “Suddenly we heard like a roar,” he describes.
And in a few seconds the ground moved down the slope and a huge white blanket trapped them. “I was with Adrian in the middle of an avalanche. He asks me to hug him and not let go,” she explains.
The avalanche dragged them together at full speed. She was on Adrián who protected her from the blows. She still has in her retina the young man’s panicked face because of the snow debris that surrounded them. “I was calm. I thought, as we fell, at least I’m with Adrián.”
When it approached like a leap, She hugged Adrián with all her strength and told him that she loved him. As she recounts those minutes of intense drama on her cell phone screen, tears run down her face. Due to the jump and the force of the avalanche, they broke free. She was left covered in snow and without Adrian.
He claims that he did not hear screams from other companions who had been devoured by the avalanche. Nothing. Then there was silence. She claims that she heard some moaning and realized that her boyfriend was close to her. But she couldn’t help him.
“I wanted to scream and I thought if no one is going to listen to me,” he says. There, alone, motionless, she thought of her parents, her nephews that she loved so much. And in the dreams that he shared with Adrián of starting a family and embarking on a united path.
The rescue
She tried to stay awake. However, the tiredness she felt throughout her body overcame her. And he fell asleep in the fetal position, with one hand covering his face. That fortuitous position allowed her to breathe even though she was buried by tons of snow.
The time she was asleep seemed like seconds. She woke up when she heard someone shouting her boyfriend’s name. She wanted to ask for help so they would know that she was buried, but she had cut her tongue with her teeth and could not speak. Neither scream. She could only express some moans that one of the rescuers heard. “They uncovered me. I heard someone talking to me. But he couldn’t recognize it. It was Mariano Spataro, who was a basketball teacher,” he recalls. “Mariano looked for Adrián who was next to me and he spoke to me,” was the little he could express.
«We were deposited in one of the sweeps, it was like a fairly vertical wall. (The rescuers) began to make steps as if to rescue the bodies of the trapped students,” Liliana says that people who worked that night explained to her. While they were carrying out this task, they found Adrián’s body because of a hat that belonged to Liliana. When they took him out, someone shouted his name. “There I wake up and that’s why they find me for finding Adrián,” she points out.
«I was under the avalanche from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. “Six hours,” he says.. The rescuers could not believe that she was alive and without any injuries. The thing is that the snow was so compacted that it looked like cement. “I was very cold and my legs were shaking,” she describes.
She was taken to the Ramón Carrillo hospital, where she was admitted around 2 a.m. on September 2, 2002. In the midst of confusion, she presumed that if she was fine, so were all her colleagues. I never imagined that Adrián had died. ““I didn’t understand the magnitude of what had happened,” he reflects. Hours later, he was informed of the victims of the tragedy.
Because of Adrián’s position under the snow, she is convinced that this way protected her, because it prevented the huge blocks of snow from hitting her. Adrián suffered a fractured femur and most of the students died of asphyxiation.
The pain of absence
Liliana says that for a long time she felt responsible for releasing Adrián. The world had collapsed on him. She went through life with a lot of anger. His life lost meaning and although he sought help, it was not easy to overcome that tragedy. It was an open wound that hurt too much.
“I asked myself why me? Why us? I stopped believing in God. Over the years the wound began to heal. She understood that everything has an end. A reason. “Maybe Adrián’s mission was to take care of me,” he reflects.
After hurting herself so much, Liliana realized that life had given her another opportunity and that she was wasting it. She had to live again. She began a recovery that was painful. Difficult. She resolved that to start writing another chapter she had to leave Bariloche. Years later, she graduated as a Physical Education teacher in Buenos Aires.
He assures that he always spoke openly about what happened on Ventana Hill. He states that it is something that did him good. Twenty-one years after that tragedy, he began to write another chapter of his story. However, he affirms that even if time passes, “Adrián will always be with me.”
A new life in Canada
Liliana Alonso arrived last November in Dawson City, in the Yukon region, Canadaby a friend who has lived and worked in that country for 15 years.
The challenge of exchanging Bariloche for those unknown lands sparked curiosity in him. Also, a challenge. She states that she was comfortable in Bariloche. But “After the pandemic there came a time when I needed a change and I said: well, I have nothing to lose. “I don’t have children, I was single.” He expresses that he needed other horizons.
I knew that it would not be easy to migrate to an unknown country. Even more so, because he could not practice his profession. She is a Physical Education teacher, but in the Canadian town has done several jobs, without any problem. “Now I am in a cafe serving the public and in the morning I make pastries and sandwiches,” she says.
A few weeks after arriving, she met a Swiss boy with whom she is dating. He loved the natural environment of the region. Snow is abundant in winter. Also the intense frosts and low temperatures. The winter clothes he brought from Bariloche were not enough to withstand the 48 degrees below zero that marked last winter.
Comment that On a winter morning, even the water flow from the kitchen faucet, which I had left running at the direction of the townspeople, froze. At that moment, she became worried and reconsidered whether this place was right for her.
But in spring and summer the landscape changes abruptly and everything is beautiful. And the town comes to life because it is filled with tourists. Some adventurers even go in search of gold in the rivers of the region. He says it was exciting to watch the northern lights.
There are many foreigners in the town, but the Canadians, although cold, are also receptive. What’s more, they invited her to share Christmas at a local family’s house.
“I came to be well. I proposed that. Here I also had my problems and it is part of life and everything adds to my learning,” she says. “I’m happy,” she says.
Liliana remains linked to the mountain. She enjoys it every time she can. “I feel peace, happiness. tranquillity. It’s like meditation in movement as my boyfriend says. He relaxes you, he makes you happy. “I feel happy in the mountains,” he says.
He says that he returned to walk on Ventana Hill several times. He also found peace in that place where memories are still present. It’s as if he had forgiven the hill that he took away such an important person at that stage of his life. He was only 19 years old.
Today, at 41 years old, he feels happy, without forgetting that tragedy that marked a stage in his life and that left him great learnings.
Nine victims
They died in the avalanche on Cerro Ventana Mario Sebastián Tapia, Antonio Humberto Díaz, Adrián Marcelo Mercado, Oscar Fabricio Vaccari, María Gimena López, Gimena Solange Padín, Martín Sebastián Lemos, Paolo Jesús Machello and Roberto “Beto” Monteros. They were all in the first year of the Physical Education Teaching degree, with orientation in mountain activities.
Andrés “Andi” Lamuniere, who led the group swept away by the avalanche, was charged, tried and sentenced on May 4, 2005 by the Federal Criminal Oral Court of Roca to 3 years in prisonof effective compliance as the author of the crime of aggravated manslaughter of the 9 university students and negligent injuries in an ideal contest
Besides, They imposed 10 years of special disqualification on him from working as a teacher and mountain guide. The trial took place in Bariloche. For the court, the guide acted with negligence, incompetence and recklessness.
They warned that although Lamuniere had the capacity and suitability as a guide, he failed in his duty of care since he was on the mountain with minors, inexperienced, poorly equipped, who had not had proper dinner the night before and all under his command.
Liliana Alonso testified at trial and still maintains that the mountain guide was responsible for what happened. He was the authoritative voice. Also, the National University of Comahue that he did not ensure the safety of his students.
The judges maintained in the sentence that Lamuniere I had another safer way to travel the mountain, known as “of the pircas”. However, he chose the wrong one.
They concluded that he did not take the precaution of passing through the place of danger one by one, so They considered that he “did not notice it” or “underestimated” it.
The defense appealed and the National Court of Criminal Cassation at the beginning of March 2006 annulled the effective fulfillment of the sentence. The chambermaids suspended the sentence and imposed behavioral guidelines on him. They assessed that he had no criminal record and favorable social reports.
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