John Garner Pass tragedy

There is no internet or cell phone service in the Los Perros area of Torres del Paine. While some other campsites and refugios in the park offer Wi-Fi for a fee, it is not available at Los Perros. This is where the hikers started off on November 17, 2025.

There were no park rangers on the night of the 16th and the morning of the 17th, because of mandatory voting in Chile’s presidential election. They went home to vote. There was no one to ask about the weather.

On the day before, Sunday November 16th, the temperatures plunged below zero and the mountain was covered with snow, according to a hiker who went over the pass the day before the incident: "We went over the pass the day before the tragedy and had clear skies and low winds, albeit lots of ice and snow on the route. But mostly very safe conditions. Show you how drastic the weather changes can be in the park. The weather the last couple days has been sunny with low winds."

The best time for hiking in Torres del Paine is the summer (December to February) for the warmest weather, or the shoulder seasons (October, November, March, and April) for fewer crowds and beautiful fall colors. The drawback is that the weather can be unpredictable, with potential for snow, but it's generally less crowded than summer.

During season hundred people can cross over John Garner Pass in a day. The Los Perros campsite can accommodate up to 70 people, but there are no beds inside. It is a basic campground with camping facilities and cold-water showers, but sleeping accommodations are in tents, not beds in a shelter.

The 5 dead belonged to 3 different groups. I will call them the Brits, the Mexicans and the Germans. Neither was an organized commercial expedition with a leader or a guide. This is not needed since the route is well marked and the whole traffic goes from campsite to campsite (refugios) and the people that do the O-circuit know well in advance that it is a beautiful but arduous route. If there is a problem with your feet you won't make it to Day 4.

Tom Player, who traveled to Chile with four friends including Bond, said there were no park rangers present on the day, adding: "We showed a screenshot of the weather forecast to staff at the camp and they said it was normal. We took that advice onboard."

That must have happened before the rangers left to vote, because there was no one from the staff in the morning of the November 17, 2025. Even if there was, they wouldn't have any better information than the hikers because there was no internet or cell phone service.

On November 16 the weather was cold with "low winds". And then look at the video below from the morning of November 17, 2025, the day of the tragedy.

Megan Wingfield, 34, said she and her husband, both anesthesiologists and avid hikers from Colorado, had arrived at the Los Perros campsite on Sunday (November 16, 2025) evening, planning to hike the John Gardner Pass the next day.

The hikers had no internet access at the site, she said, but asked the staff whether the rain and wind were typical for this time of year. She said the staff reassured her and others that the conditions were not unusual, and recommended hiking the pass between about 8 am and noon.

Around 6:45 am the next day, the couple left the campsite, Ms. Wingfield said, wearing warm layers, wind pants, raincoats, hiking boots and crampons, as well as gloves, hats and gaiters to keep their faces warm. Within a few hours, she said, the wind was so strong that she and others in the group could barely stand. Then, less than 700 feet from the top of the pass, three young men heading in the opposite direction, their facial hair encased in icicles, warned them it was too treacherous to go on.

"We all sort of came to the conclusion, 'OK, we’re not doing this,'" she said.

The group turned around. Between gusts, the hikers could see about 10 feet ahead, and otherwise only two or three. They were forced to backtrack down a steep rocky slope that had turned into an "ice rink", she said.

Bodies slid in all directions. One man skidded nearly 50 feet, headfirst toward a pile of rocks, Ms. Wingfield said. "Thank God, his backpack hit the rocks before his head did," she said. "He stood up and said, ‘Am I going to die today?'"

The ice, she said, was streaked with blood. People screamed as they slid into one another. When a man who was diabetic collapsed, Ms. Wingfield and her husband wrapped him in an emergency shelter, gave him a packet of applesauce and pleaded with him to keep going.

Around 11:30 am, Ms. Wingfield and her husband had returned to the camp with dozens of others, many bleeding and bruised, and nearly all with mild hypothermia, she said. There were doctors in the group who worked to treat the injured, she added, but the staff offered no assistance, refused to call for help and would not open a room where the group could stay warm.

"They just were not seeming to grasp what had happened, like at all," said Megan Wingfield.

Fellow hiker and friend Chris Aldridge, who was with Victoria when the disaster unfolded, has since opened up about her final moments, and how he'd believed everybody would die as he slid down the mountain at unstoppable speeds.

In an interview with the Mail Online, experienced hiker Chris recalled that although they knew there would be winds up on the icy peaks, they had no idea just how bad things would get and, on the way back down from their ascent, things got really treacherous.

Chris remembered: "Some people slid down the mountain. It was icy, really treacherous conditions, [with] really strong winds. People couldn't see in front or behind [themselves]." He continued: 'It was pretty terrifying. I slid down the mountain once at a very high speed, and I couldn't stop. It was just sheet ice."

Tom Player described the storm as "absolutely brutal", with cold temperatures, downpours, sleet and snow.

He said: "We had seen a forecast which gave us a heads-up, gusts of over 100 km/h [60 mph], sustained high winds throughout the day.

"I don’t think any of us expected blizzard-like conditions, it got progressively worse throughout the day. We left at around 5:30 am in the morning, there was heavy rain, lots of wind.

"We were getting knocked over, even crouching down on all fours. I wasn’t prepared for mountaineering conditions where you would have spikes in your boots, rope, snow goggles. I think it took everyone by surprise."

When they arrived back at camp, it was clear some members of the group had sustained serious injuries. According to Chris: "It was still really windy and everyone was verging on hypothermia. Lots of people with frostbite and some other superficial injuries." Sadly, it was also at this point that they realized that not everybody had made it back to camp. Park rangers, who'd returned to their hometowns to vote in the general election, weren't around to assist, and so the courageous group took it upon themselves to head out and rescue the missing. Sadly, it was too late for Victoria.

Tom Player said the hiking group included a head of ER, junior doctors, a helicopter paramedic (sans the helicopter of course) and a psychologist who all helped during the rescue effort. "The rescue effort was one of those moments when you realize you have so much faith in humanity and people.”

He added: "There was a general unpreparedness and lack of emergency planning. We made a stretcher out of a set of hiking poles, gaffer tape, a tent cord and a sleeping mat."

Player said he came across other hikers during his search for Victoria Bond. "One staff member came forward out of compassion. He was amazing, he and I ran up the hill.

"We found someone, who later turned out to be Cristina [Calvillo Tovar], who was hypothermic. He gave her gloves and a coat and tried to walk with her to get her some help. I found another person and was later told it was Julian [Garcia Pimentel], who was dead.

"I carried on up the hill and found someone else, who later turned out to be one of the German ladies. She was responsive. I tried to help her up, she was deeply hypothermic. I wrapped my sleeping bag around her and stayed with her and tried to give her a drink of hot water."

According to the group, the staff at the camp offered no safety guidance or help, even after dozens of hikers — forced to turn back because of the conditions — had returned to the campsite suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, abrasions and head injuries.

Around 12:30 pm, she said, the hikers organized a search-and-rescue effort for those who had not returned. Others were trying to determine who was missing and which authorities to call. A few recalled one of the hikers, who was later found dead, falling repeatedly.

Just after 3:30 pm, another hiker, Arab Ginnett, posted for help on social media. "We are snowed in and people are still out on the pass," she wrote.

"We need urgent help, climbers and rescuers are on the risk of dying based on our current situation," she said.

A mountain rescue team eventually found Victoria Bond and, despite efforts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead.

Tom Player added: "I went up there looking for my friend and I didn't find her, it is very hard to live with that. I had no idea how many people had succumbed to this brutal cold."

Mauricio Ruiz, the regional director of CONAF, Chile’s national forestry corporation, which employs the park’s rangers, told local news media that "there were no park rangers on the night of the 16th" because of mandatory voting in Chile’s presidential election.

Survivor Christian Aldridge is giving an account of what happened on November 17, 2025. Featuring new footage from the day of the disaster. Blame cannot be cast on a single party, "it's not one person's fault. This isn't Rangers fault. This isn't Vertice's fault. This isn't any staff of vertices fault. This is a collection of system failures and negligence that lead to shared responsibility and to be aware in the future not to allow this to happen again." (see video below)

Chile’s National Forest Corporation said November 19, 2025, that it deeply regretted the episode and was focused on relocating anyone who had been on the affected trail, the O-Circuit, a challenging 85-mile loop that takes eight or nine days to complete. The five died on a stretch of the circuit known as the John Gardner Pass, the highest and most exposed section. The park authority said the circuit would be closed while it investigates.

In an interview with local media on Wednesday, Mauricio Ruiz, the regional director of the park service in Magallanes, said there were no rangers in the park on Monday because they left the previous day to vote in the country’s presidential election. He described the region where the blizzard took place as "the most complex area of the mountain." Rodrigo Illesca, the director of the park service, told the radio station ADN that he was not informed of the emergency until 6 pm on Monday.

At a conference on November 20, 2025, Cristián Crisosto, the regional prosecutor for Magallanes, which includes the national park, said that he had opened an investigation and that the police were taking statements from park staff, from Vertice, the company that operates the campground, known as Los Perros, and from 69 people who were there on the day of the snowstorm.

Mr. Crisosto said all five had died of hypothermia, and 27 people were injured in the blizzard.

Vertice, the company that operates the campground, said in a statement that it had contacted the authorities and provided logistical support to rescue teams. "We provided emotional support to everyone," the company said.

Dozens of hikers who were on the trail and at the campground on the day of the snowstorm sharply criticized the lack of warning and the emergency response, which they said was severely delayed and insufficient.

"We want to make it clear that this was a terrible, avoidable tragedy. Nobody should have been allowed, let alone encouraged, to go up the pass that day, as we were by Vertice staff," the group said in a statement shared by one of the hikers.

CONAF, the body in charge of Chile's national parks, has issued the following statement: "We deeply regret this tragedy and send our solidarity to the families of the deceased and to all those who have experienced very difficult times in Torres del Paine National Park. Following this tragedy, CONAF will review the safety and communication protocols in the park's circuits together with the concessionaires, with the aim of strengthening prevention and emergency response capacity."

A spokesperson for Visit Isles of Scilly, where Victoria had worked in PR, also released a statement, sharing they had been "deeply saddened" by the death of their "much-loved" friend. They said: "Whilst on a trip of a lifetime to explore and go hiking with friends in Argentina and Chile, her group were caught in a freak severe snowstorm and high winds in Chilean Patagonia.

In view of the magnitude of the event, the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), together with the provincial emergency committee and the local authority of the Provincial Presidential Delegation of Last Hope, activated an emergency rescue and evacuation operation.

In parallel, the temporary closure of the stretch connecting the Dickson and Paso camps, part of the "O" circuit was decreed, to facilitate search work and avoid new risks to the public.

Álvaro Elizalde, the Chilean interior minister, said the government was working with consulates to return the bodies of Cristina Calvillo Tovar and Julián García Pimentel from Mexico, Victoria Bond from Britain and Nadine Lichey and Andreas Von Pein from Germany.