A group of hikers who survived a snowstorm in Patagonia that killed five others have called for better communications, emergency protocols, and more rangers in the Chilean national park, Torres del Paine, to avoid a further “terrible, avoidable tragedy.”
Torres del Paine, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the far south of Chile, attracts up to 300,000 visitors every year thanks to its vast glaciers, dramatic valleys, and stunning wildlife. It’s often marketed as “the end of the world.” For one recent group of hikers, it was.
The collection of small groups had already spent four days in the national park and were due to leave Los Perros campsite on 17 November to tackle a 15-km hike to the next stopover, Grey. This leg of the “O Circuit” includes the John Garner Pass at an altitude of 1,220 metres. Despite the worsening weather, staff at Los Perros, the group said, failed to warn the hikers how dangerous the conditions could get, describing the situation as “just Patagonia.” Unbeknownst to them, staff on the other side had been warned by other hikers to close the pass, but did not do so.
Hace unas semanas tuve el privilegio de tomar fotos aéreas en Torres del Paine…y quedé impactado. 😮
— Timothy Dhalleine (@tdhalleine) November 28, 2025
En estas imágenes se ven las Torres, el cerro Paine Grande y el paso John Gardner – del que tristemente se habló en las noticias hace unos días.
Verlo desde arriba te recuerda… pic.twitter.com/U2nQnOGw4i
About 30 hikers set off in the early morning, soon coming together under the guidance of a pair of experienced skiers and mountain hikers. As temperatures dropped to -5°C and winds reached 190km/h, most made the decision to turn back just 50 metres from the summit of the pass. One of them described the experience as “terrifying.”
Returning to Los Perros, 27 of the 30 injured from long falls down rocky ice sheets and suffering frostbite and hypothermia, they were forced to demand access to the camp staffroom to create a medical response unit, for which staff initially charged them extra.
They also discovered another group of five hikers who had pressed on were still missing. A distress call was put out at 2 pm, hours after the group had first departed the camp. The lack of staff, which has since been blamed on voting in the Chilean presidential election, meant that some members of the group and others who had made the call not to set out earlier that day, then became impromptu emergency rescuers, leaving to try and find the missing. The five victims, a British woman, a German couple and a Mexican couple, were later found dead across an area of around two kilometres. Emergency services did not arrive until 24 hours after the first SOS.
@thetimes A survivor of the blizzard which killed a British woman and four others in Chilean Patagonia has described the “suffocating” snowstorm that turned a steep rocky mountainside into “sheet ice” with near-zero visibility. Christian Aldridge, from Newquay, Cornwall, told The Times from his hospital bed in Chile: “I think we all thought we were not getting out of this. It felt like we were in a nightmare.” He said that park rangers should have assessed the weather to decide whether to close the treacherous route they were taking, but were not working on the day of the incident because of mandatory voting in Chile’s presidential election #blizzard #patagonia
♬ original sound – The Times and The Sunday Times
The survivors have hit out at authorities for failing to properly staff the national park or to give the proper warnings. “Nobody should have been allowed, let alone encouraged, to attempt the pass that day,” their statement said. “There’s been a lot of victim blaming, but hikers were encouraged to head out in extremely dangerous conditions, and told there would be rangers present.” They called the outcome “a huge systemic failure.”
@skynews Christian Aldridge describes the rescue efforts to recover the bodies of five climbers, including his friend Victoria Bond, after a snowstorm in Patagonia. The Chilean National Forest Corporation have launched an investigation into the accident. #SkyNews
♬ original sound – Sky News
An increase in the number of rangers, who currently number just 450 across the 13.2 million hectares of parks across the country, is a pressing need. The provision of daily advice and weather updates is also among the “simple safety measures” that the group want to see put in place by the Chilean government, parks administration (CONAF) and private operator, Vertice. In addition, they say that including a log of hikers’ movements at each campsite and access to medical equipment are required.
While Vertice has denied it carries any responsibility for hiking trail management, CONAF has launched an internal investigation, which it says will “determine any potential liability” and “review the safety and communication protocols” to boost “prevention and emergency response capacity.”
