One Earthquake, Then Another: Chaos on Mount Logan

28:26On Sunday night, Natalia calls Camilo on the satellite phone and lets him know she's made it this far safely. The summit suddenly seems within her grasp. Just 600 meters more of sheer ascent, then a gentle six-kilometer trek along the plateau at the top of the mountain. That should only take about three days. That night was perfect. It was with my tent, everything was good. I was in peace. I was very confident. It was like, I think my five day in the mountain or six, I don't remember. So everything was perfect. What Natalia doesn't know is that thousands of meters below her, something less than perfect is brewing.

29:18A once-in-a-generation seismic event. Two tectonic plates are scraping against each other, causing friction. When the pressure gets too much, all that energy will have to go somewhere. It's a time bomb, equivalent to over 6 ,000 tons of TNT. And the clock is ticking.

29:46You know, one of my favorite parts of the summer is wearing some of my most comfortable and versatile pieces in my wardrobe. The days are longer, hotter, yet more relaxed, and Quince offers some of the best high-quality options no matter what your everyday to-do list looks like. I just added their Flow Knit Brice Performance Tee, and this top is the perfect do-everything option. It's great for a workout, running errands, working in the yard, or hitting up that cookout. The best part? This tee features moisture-wicking technology, so it easily handles those warm and muggy afternoons. And if you want to upgrade your summer rotation, Quince's 100 % European linen pants and shirts are breathable and easy to throw on, starting at just$34.

30:29Everything at Quince is priced 50 % to 80 % less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for exceptional quality, not brand markup. And it's not just clothing. Quince has become a trusted favorite for everything from home to travel to everyday essentials. So make your summer wardrobe easier. go to quince.com slash survival stories for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash survival stories for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's quince.com slash survival stories.

31:08This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 % of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com.

31:42The following morning, Natalia wakes early. It's minus 10 degrees, but experience has taught her how to retain warmth. Without leaving her sleeping bag, she shuffles over to the entrance of the tent and pokes her head outside, like a tortoise cautiously emerging from its shell. In the distance, the sun is slowly rising, painting the perfect white slopes of the mountain in the warm light of dawn. The final stretch lies ahead. But first, some food. Melting snow, she is chipped off the mountain. Natalia brews herself a cup of tea and makes a small bowl of porridge. Steam fills the interior of the tent, condensing on the taut, grey fabric.

32:34This simple breakfast is the same one she's eaten every day since she arrived on Mount Logan nine days earlier. But this time, she won't get to finish her meal.

32:49A vibration morphs into a rumble, then vigorous shaking. Suddenly, it's as if the mountain is coming alive. I start feeling that the tent was moving side to side, but my stove was in the same place. So I say, what's going on? I saw the roof of the tent moving, but the water was in the same place, and I say, oh-oh. It is a magnitude 6 earthquake, the worst to hit this mountain range in decades. A tectonic event like this is rare, and it's powerful enough to cause extensive damage. Plus, right now, Natalia is on a precarious spot, and all that separates her from the thunderous shuddering of the mountain is a flimsy canvas tent.

33:45A tent that is currently being shaken from side to side like a helpless animal in the mouth of a predator. Amidst the confusion, Natalia struggles to orientate herself. What's happening? Is she... falling? I couldn't understand at that moment what's going on. My sensation was that a piece of ice was just sliding down to the void. And I say, okay, I will die very soon. Because the sound was like, brrrr, like when the train is coming, that you feel that, I don't know, kind of vibration and sound. So my reaction was to put in a fetal position and just wait for the worst.

34:41Crouched inside the tent, the seconds seem to stretch out to infinity.

34:54But eventually, the shaking stops and Natalia cautiously uncurls herself. She draws a nervous breath, then reaches for the sat phone and instinctively dials Camilo's number. 2 ,000 kilometers away, in British Columbia, he's fast asleep in bed. He was in Vancouver, so a few hours difference. He didn't understand, he was sleepy and he said, I love you so much and I don't know what's going on, but something is going on but I don't understand what happened. But I want to let you know that I love you. Natalia ends the call, promising to phone again when she's worked out what's just occurred. Then she tentatively reaches over and unzips the flap of the tent.

35:51I finish the call and I say, okay, you have to go outside. Be brave, you have to see what's going on. So slowly I take the zipper up and went outside and everything was in the same place and nothing happened. I said, what's wrong? I knew what I saw and I feel, what's going on? And I checked and I saw that close to me was a crevas and the bridge of the crevas collapsed a little. So I knew that something was moving or something happened that for that reason that bridge collapsed. But around my tent was perfect. I didn't see any changes. So I went to my tent again to finish my breakfast. And the same sensation again.

36:46Everything moving. I was inside without seeing anything. this is the end.

37:22rumbling seems to come from all around. Camped out in a relatively exposed position, she has a pretty good chance of being buried alive. But there is nothing she can do right now other than tense every muscle in her body and squeeze her eyes shut.

37:43Eventually the shaking subsides and somehow Now both Natalia and her tent are still in one piece. She goes outside to take another look around. And now there is no question about how lucky she's been. When the movement finished and went out again, I started hearing more avalanches around me but I was far, so you can see the avalanche going down, but not in the place I was. in her muddled state it's still difficult to fully piece together what's happening but one thing is clear she needs to get far away from here as soon as she can through the next few hours mount logan is hit by dozens of smaller aftershocks the ground was moving so i say i need to escape from here something bad is happening and I don't know what it is.

38:41Never ever was thinking about an earthquake. My first thought was run away. Run away to a safe place or when you feel safe because something is happening. Natalia packs her rucksack faster than she's ever done it in her life, leaving behind a a good chunk of her equipment. There's not enough time to take everything. With just basic provisions, she retraces her steps from the previous day, heading for the campsite 300 meters below, which hopefully will afford a little more shelter. But that means crossing the Knife Edge Pass again, the deadly icy tightrope, which is less stable than ever. and she's far shakier on her feet than she was before.

39:32I was dizzy and I was so scared to cross that because I didn't know if I was taking good decisions, what was going with myself. I didn't know what's going on. Woozily, Natalia makes her way along the knife-edge pass, doing her best not to look down. Every step is a wobbly heart-in-mouth movement. The slippery, narrow walkway zigzags beneath her trembling legs. Yet somehow, inch by inch, she makes it all the way back to the lower campsite. She sits and catches her breath for a moment, physically and mentally exhausted.

40:15But she cannot linger for long, because there is a new problem. In the distance, she can see a storm brewing, a big one. Furious, forbidding clouds move in a swarm of blackness towards her. Best guess, it'll hit her position in a matter of hours. To survive the onslaught, Natalia will need the rest of her provisions, the ones she left behind in her haste. This means crossing the knife edge two more times, there and back again. I see the big clouds, mordens, coming up, black, dark grey. So I say, okay, Natalia, go for the rest of your things. Just before turning back, Natalia quickly pitches her tent at the lower campsite, setting up right next to a large crevasse in the ice.

41:14Unlikely as it may seem, this natural hazard could serve as a backup shelter. If she has to abandon the tent altogether. You never know what can happen. The wind can destroy your tent. And so I was thinking my plan B is to jump into the crevice and wait there. It sounds weird, but it's a good option. A good last-ditch option. But obviously not one she wants to have to take. For now, she focuses on fortifying her new position. packing snow into blocks and building an igloo-like wall around one side of her tent. Once in place, she decides to update Camilo on her situation. By now, he's wide awake, and he's been researching her predicament himself.

42:06It's when he told me, Natalia, it was too earthquake. The biggest doesn't happen 50 years ago. so it was a right moment to do that thank you nature incredibly at this point natalia still has half a mind to continue on to the summit if she can ride out the storm she may be able to cross the knife edge ridge again return to her camp from the previous night and then onwards and upwards but the more she speaks to camillo the less wise the idea feels my plan was to continue but i was in a kind of a shock or a state of full alert that i asked myself if i was capable to keep taking good decisions especially in the state i was i was scared and i He was thinking, if I'm walking, feeling dizzy, what is the point?

43:12You are not in the state that you feel sure you are making strong steps, safe steps. Things can happen. So we decided to ask for help. So Camilo called to National Park and is when the rescue plan starts. But to take that decision was super hard. And I think recognizing myself in a weakness moment is great.

43:50With the decision taken, the task Natalia faces is now much clearer. Not climbing the peak, but simply surviving long enough to be rescued. with winds of up to 85 miles an hour currently battering mount logan no helicopter is going to be able to land there not until the storm has passed and the storm is edging ever closer to her position i was making my fortress so i was making a huge wall i was putting the shovel in the right place, to have snow, to have food, all in the right place for me to just say to the storm, just do your thing quickly as possible, please. Finally, the ice storm cometh.

44:47Natalia retreats inside her tent and batons down the hatches, which in this case means sliding the little zipper to the closed position. Then she waits for the onslaught to begin. Before long, the tent is being pounded by the swirling snow. Through the fabric, Natalia can see it's starting to pile up outside as well. Left unchecked, that could spell bad news. Stealing herself for the ice-cold blast, she takes hold of her shovel and steps outside the tent. Leaning into the wind, she digs out the freshly fallen snow until her little haven is surrounded by a neatly tended circle of flat ground. But the snow just keeps on falling.

45:36I set up my alarm every two hours to clean around the tent or at least to check how are the conditions of my tent. So every two hours I was shoveling around my tent. You know, it's like when you take care of your garden, same thing. All through the afternoon, and then evening too, Natalia repeats her grueling routine. During her shifts out in the cold, she sees the sun drop lower and lower in the sky. Eventually night falls. But the storm shows no signs of abating. It looks like she's in it for the long haul. So far, the wall of ice she has constructed around her tent has taken the brunt of the onslaught.

46:25But by now, the tent itself is starting to show signs of wear as well. At some point, the wind, I open the zipper of the tent and the zipper gets freezed and I couldn't close the zipper. and the snow is coming in the tent. I was so tired. At some point I was like, oh, I don't care anymore. And that is bad. That is bad.

46:58Worse still, as the storm continues raging, stronger gusts of wind start pushing and pulling at the roof of the tent itself, threatening to flatten the tiny structure. So one of the problems that can happen there is that the poles of your tent can crack, and if that happens, the fabric can rip. Natalia can see the poles flexing as the roof of the tent sags towards her. She's going to have to hold it together herself. She reaches up and takes a pole in each hand, forcing them upwards against the full force of the wind. She's determined not to let them break. And this goes on all through the night.

47:47At times, Natalia is so exhausted it overwhelms her. She cannot keep her eyes open. I wake up every time the gas come in and shake my tent. So I was like this and wake up and yeah. So that happened all the night. It was a very long night. The main comfort is that at least Camilo has called for help. But there's no knowing when that will arrive. It's probably still a long way away. And in these conditions, there is no way to get a helicopter up on the mountain. The National Park authorities keep phoning her throughout the night to keep her posted on their disappointing lack of progress. But she already has her hands full, literally.

48:32They were calling me on the sad phone. It was like, guys, you know, sorry, I'm okay, but I cannot do this. Try to talk with Camilo and he can arrange all of that. Now I have to take care of me and the tent. Sorry, but they were super professional. The authorities keep checking in with Natalia about her physical state. If she has any injuries, they want to be totally ready when they eventually reach her. That is, if they can reach her in time. Finally dawn breaks, but there is still no let-up from the storm. It continues into a second day. Natalia is utterly spent, and she hasn't had a chance to eat or drink all night.

49:19Almost running on empty, things need to improve soon. At long last, when afternoon arrives, the wind begins to die down. And when the things calm down is when I drink water, eat and all of this because all that period I didn't do anything, just hold my tent. But even though the storm is now less intense, it's not as straightforward as merely swooping in to retrieve her. It'll be another 48 hours before conditions improve enough for the park authorities to think about mounting a rescue. For Natalia, there is not much to do but stay put.

50:16But in the meantime, back in Vancouver, she's become something of a celebrity. Her story has come to the attention of a CBC news crew. Camilo is even interviewed live on TV. Camilo told me, I just want to let you know that you are in the news, but it's not big deal, don't pay attention on that, and blah, blah, blah. And I say, okay, I don't care, I'm here, I cannot do anything, so I don't care. Before long, Natalia's story has made it all around the world, making news bulletins in her native Argentina and featuring in the Guardian newspaper and on the BBC. The lone woman stuck up on a mountain is an intriguing story.

51:04Meanwhile, Natalia is keeping busy, readying herself as best she can for rescue. I was preparing a platform for the helicopter. I was fixing things in my tent. And I pack everything in my backpack. And that's it. It's one thing you don't have to do. You have to leave your tent up just in case. But I was very confident that they will come. On Thursday evening, three and a half days after the earthquakes put an end to her mission to climb Mount Logan, the rescue chopper at last arrives. so at first you don't see the helicopter you hear them so you are desperately trying to find them a little point in the sky

52:04natalia crouches on the ground as the helicopter circles her position It dips down to water, but retreats when a gust from its propellers churns up a cloud of snow. The pilot tries again, but once more, the blinding flurry forces him to back off. On the third attempt, the chopper barely makes contact with the mountainside. The tips of its two ski legs touch down ever so gently, and the co-pilot jumps out to help Natalia aboard. The helicopter landed close to me. The ranger jumped off. He took me very gentle, put me into the helicopter, and that's it. It was like a super simple, very professional.

52:56They know what they are doing.

53:03I wrote a little song to remind you. Choice Hotels gets you more of the experiences you value. The Cambria Hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book direct at choicehotels.com.

53:22This summer, serve up the cookout classics, Heinz Ketchup and Kraft Singles. Every good burger needs a layer of perfectly melty cheese and thick, rich ketchup. We all know it's not a cookout without Heinz and Kraft.

53:42Within less than a minute, they're airborne. As their helicopter rises into the sky, Natalia looks back on Mount Logan. Her home for the past two weeks, and very nearly her grave. She's been through a staggering array of trials. Two earthquakes, the constant threat of avalanches, and one superstorm. And yet, despite everything she has endured, she still takes a moment to absorb the sheer majesty of Canada's tallest mountain. He was saying goodbye, and the mountain looks so beautiful. Beautiful and dangerous at the same time. I don't know, it's this kind of weird situation, but at the moment it was beautiful to be flying over the mountain.

54:34And that's it, yeah. Try to put a period on that sentence of your life. Back in civilization, it's time for a long-awaited reunion. Camilo has flown from Vancouver to meet Natalia in the National Park. But he hasn't come alone. When he came, he came with a journalist. And that was another thing that shocked me because I didn't be ready to share the story yet. And yeah, it was, I didn't like it. Camilo convinces Natalia to be polite and she obliges. Reluctantly, she shares her story with a journalist. After all, he's come a long way for the scoop. But back home in Vancouver, she grows increasingly frustrated with the way her story is reported in the press.

55:31Many outlets can't seem to get the basic facts straight, writing that she survived an avalanche rather than two earthquakes. If you want to be a good journalist, please do your job, do your research. people say an avalanche. Avalanche happened around me but not over me. So, yeah, I get frustrated for that because it's like, why are people still saying that now? But even more hurtful is the way she's been presented. Not as an experienced climber who survived a series of natural disasters, but as a damsel in distress, helplessly waiting for rescue. Certainly, her story has attracted far more media attention than the two climbers rescued from Mount Logan a fortnight earlier.

56:24And then there are the below-the-line comments. People were so cruel with the message. I was thinking why the couples were rescued before. Me, they didn't have the attention I had because they were men. I don't know. It's nothing against them. It's just the question I was doing myself. Maybe I was more sensitive, but I feel that they were talking about me without knowing me. And I don't know, questioning my decisions when, I don't know, if they climb mountains. How I perceive it was like a Latin woman climbing a Canadian mountain solo, without any experience, using our resources. And I say, I love to climb mountains.

57:23That's it. It's what I do all my life. I climb mountains. You sell insurance. Perfect. I climb mountains. Of course, opinions, we are in a free country, blah, blah, blah. But people, please be aware that you can affect other people with your comments. And I was weak, mentally weak. And that affected me a lot.

57:57But despite the bitter taste these experiences left, Natalia says her love of mountain climbing remains as strong as ever. These days, she and Camila split their time between Canada and Argentina, making the most of the world-class peaks in both hemispheres. My friends ask me the same question over and over again, are you scared of the mountains now? I say, no. The mountains are still the same. It's your choice to take that situation as a learning situation or as a trauma situation. I know mountains are very good teachers. I love to expose myself to certain risks because I know I can handle it.

58:51That is what I do and I love to do that. And as for Mount Logan, Natalia still hasn't given up on the idea of reaching the summit one day. I would love to go back, but I think I have to feel the call. I did the most difficult and technical part of the mountain, so for me that was amazing. and I feel very proud of me to achieve that kind of goal because the reach is very intimidating and especially when it's shaking. So I know the mountain is there, the project was beautiful and I can go at any time but now I feel other kinds of goals, other mountains are calling me and I don't feel like I didn't finish something, you know?

59:49It's just part of the experience.

1:00:03Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet Coast Guard swimmer Michael Odom and his best friend and colleague Mario Vitone. In January 1995, they are part of a team dispatched to rescue the crew of a sailboat caught in the grip of a merciless winter storm. But when the helicopter's cable malfunctions and fuel runs dangerously low, the crew have no choice but to leave without Michael. In the open Atlantic, he must fight the overwhelming brutality of the ocean alone. Meanwhile, Mario is racked with guilt for leaving his friend behind, while a potentially fatal scenario of his own starts to take shape.

1:00:47That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now without ads and without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus.