‘This is where we die’: Brit survivor of Patagonia blizzard hell tells of how tragedy unfolded – killing his friend from Cornwall and four other tourists

The friend of a British woman who died during a four-day hike has spoken of the hell she and other hikers endured while caught in a blizzard in Patagonia and how they were convinced they were all going to die.

Victoria Bond, 40, based in Cornwall, was among five people who died tragically on Monday after a 190mph snowstorm blew through the Torres del Paine nature reserve, Chile’s most visited foreign tourist destination.

His death, along with that of two Germans and two Mexicans, came amid horrific weather conditions that hit the Patagonian park famous for its granite peaks, glaciers and wildlife, plunging hikers into a torrent of snow, sleet, ice and wind.

Victoria’s film and TV director friend Chris Aldridge says he thought he and everyone he was with would perish on the icy peaks of the nature reserve: ‘A lot of the time I was thinking: ‘Oh, this is where we’re going to die.’

The Brit told the Daily Mail how endless snow fell on his face as he raced down the mountain, his feet and hands starting to succumb to the freezing cold that was starting to set in.

Faced with dangerously fast winds caused by a white snowstorm, the director had decided to return to safety with the others he was walking with.

Victoria, who worked in public relations, died alongside Mexico’s Cristina Calvillo Tovar and Julian Garcia Pimentel and German natives Nadine Lichey and Andreas Von Pein.

Although he is an experienced hiker and has trekked in the Himalayas, Chris said he has never known terror like he did on Monday.

But he said “sheer determination not to die” drove him and others to keep going until they reached safety.

Despite being an experienced hiker and having trekked across the Himalayas, Chris Aldridge (pictured) said he had never known terror like he did on Monday.

After spending some time in Argentina, Chris, Victoria and three others she was traveling with headed to Chile to go trekking and noticed that the weather in the country was terrible.

Chris told the Daily Mail: ‘The weather was pretty bad. The first day was frustrating but good. It was an easy walk. It just meant lots of water and mud.’

The bad weather continued for the next few days until Monday, when the tragedy occurred.

Chris claimed that Monday’s weather forecast predicted winds of up to 100 km (62 mph) per hour, fast enough to be classified as a tropical storm.

Despite high wind speeds, he claims he and others were told it was safe to follow Circuit O, a difficult journey across the Torres del Paine.

According to Chris, the first climb up John Garner Pass, the highest point of Circuit O, was relatively easy as they left their accommodation at around 5.30am on Monday, November 17th.

‘There’s quite a lot of hills but it goes through forests, there’s a lot of water but it’s OK there. The problem was that the wind was down.

‘We knew the wind was going to blow, but honestly we didn’t know it was going to be this bad.’

Reuters reported that the region was hit by a blizzard, leading to whiteout conditions with wind gusts exceeding 193 km/h (120 mph); this is equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane; Chris noted that this was “nearly double what was estimated.”

The TV director said the group was not prepared for these conditions: ‘[There] it was ice. For this you need crampons, ice picks and appropriate equipment, which we did not have.

Chris, who provided this footage of the route to and from the base, said they returned in bad weather

He and the rest of his group had turned back just before John Garner Pass.

‘So we decided to go back. It was very difficult to go down. It was all white, you couldn’t see the people in front of you.’

Chris said they turned back just before reaching the John Garner Pass, adding: ‘Conditions were so appalling that people were physically exhausted and frozen.

‘Snow was not expected. ‘It was a complete snowstorm, the winds were very strong and people weren’t prepared and people didn’t have the right equipment.’

Chris said it was difficult to come back from the climb due to the conditions.

‘Some of them slid down the mountain. It was freezing, really dangerous conditions. [with] really strong winds. People couldn’t see in front or behind [themselves].’

Chris said: ‘It was quite scary. Once I slid down the mountain at very high speed and couldn’t stop. It was just a sheet of ice.

‘I was just trying to get my heels and poles in but nothing was stopping me. I targeted a few rocks to break the pace.

‘I was wearing a helmet but I could have easily flipped over. Everything was fine, just a few scratches. However, we have difficulty breathing because the snow is so dense.

‘You couldn’t see. Especially when going up you could barely see the person in front of you, the wind and snow was blowing into our eyes.

‘You couldn’t look up. It was very painful. I wore glasses for a while, but they were completely covered with ice. That didn’t help much either.”

He said others had also struggled to get down and were all too aware of how wrong the descent could go: ‘I’ve seen a lot of people slide down a very steep place when it was icy.

Victoria, who was photographed on a boat in Cornwall, had shared updates about the walk in Patagonia before her death.

Victoria shared footage of herself and other hikers crossing raging rivers under drizzling rain and gray skies

‘You’re using the wrong slide and you can’t control it. You hit a rock, you hit your head, you get a concussion. That’s it, game over. If you stop, you will become physically tired; You stand too long, that’s all. If it gets too cold, we can’t move.

‘I don’t know why more people didn’t do it but I think we were, I think everyone knew it was very, very sketchy. ‘The intensity suddenly hit us.’

Chris said there are large red poles along Circuit O to keep hikers on the right track. However, in the snowstorm, the group could only make out the next pole.

Even so, ‘we were all just focusing on the person in front of us and trying to survive,’ he said.

When they got back to their camp the group found many people seriously injured and Chris said: ‘It was really windy and everyone was on the verge of hypothermia.

‘Many people have frostbite and some other superficial injuries.’

The group also noticed that not everyone returned.

To make matters worse, Chris said, park rangers who were normally there to dispatch an emergency rescue party were nowhere to be found, having been called back to their hometowns to vote in Sunday’s general election; This was the first election to mandate compulsory voting since 2012.

As a result, the hikers, along with some volunteers from the camps, organized a makeshift rescue force to find lost people.

Chris, who said he was too distraught to go back up, said: ‘We sent my friend up first to help locate people. Then there was a separate team that went up with stretchers we made from cushions, canes and tarpaulins.

‘There was another team that went to help later, when they got the stretcher down there to help them down.

‘We were up quite late that night and obviously had to be searched at some point.’

Patagonian Torres del Paine nature reserve, Chile’s most visited foreign tourist destination (File image)

Chris said he felt a bittersweet pride in the hard work everyone in the camp did to rescue the few missing people.

‘Everyone came together in such a phenomenal way. Even though everyone was struggling on their own, they were all helping each other. There was so much compassion.

‘They went further. People were throwing their equipment at each other. ‘They would give whatever the people wanted.’

Serious questions remain about how preventable all of this was. A friend of Victoria’s reiterated this in a post on her Instagram page: ‘There was no official search organized by park authorities that day.’

CONAF, the agency responsible for Chile’s national parks, said in a previous statement: ‘We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and send our wishes of solidarity to the families of those killed and to all those who are going through a very difficult time in the Torres del Paine National Park.

‘Following this tragedy, CONAF will review security and communication protocols on park circuits with concessionaires to strengthen prevention and emergency response capacity.

‘We reiterate our commitment to the safety of visitors and the protection of one of the country’s most valuable natural heritage.’