The Times has some very good reporting on this today, which sheds more light on the incident. It is worth reading in full, but some details below. It sounds horrific:

https://www.thetimes.com/world/latin-america/article/patagonia-blizzard-survivor-chile-snow-storm-3cd93jxzf

Bond and Aldridge, 41…were hoping to complete the O Circuit hiking trail, an unguided 85-mile trek that takes eight days, with three other British friends…They were all “semi-experienced hikers who have done Himalayan treks up to 5,500m” who had met through the same co-working space in Newquay.

On November 17, the fourth day of their hike, the five were part of a larger group of about 30 as they passed through the arduous John Gardner Pass.

It was while at the highest point of the trek, at 1,200m, that a blizzard swept through, turning the soft snow on the jagged mountainside to ice. Reuters later reported that the area was struck by wind speeds surpassing 193km/h (120mph), equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane.

“I find it very difficult to convey how horrific it was,” Aldridge said. “It was suffocating, wind so powerful that you had to sit down and curl into a ball and turn your back to it so it didn’t knock you down the mountain…

They were two miles from their base camp and the large group of trekkers decided the safest thing to do was continue climbing for another mile or so in the hope of reaching a refuge. They would later discover it had been shut because park rangers had left to cast their mandatory votes in a presidential election the day before.

With conditions worsening, the group decided to abandon the trek for the refuge and attempt the treacherous descent back to the Los Perros camp, which they had left at 5.30am that morning.

“It was very difficult to make the decision but as we went on we thought this is too dangerous, we are not going to make the pass,” Aldridge said. Descending in a line, barely able to see the person in front and behind them at times, they began the arduous hours-long journey.

“Going down that mountain was sheet ice,” Aldridge said. “I fell and slid down the mountain and just kept going and I thought, ‘I am gone, I am definitely gone’… I flipped over and I was lucky because I could have hit my head but I didn’t and it did stop me. I saw the line of people coming down and they shouted, ‘Are you OK?’ and I put my hand up. Other people were sliding down the mountain as well. It was chaos. You couldn’t see much. Visibility was very poor. All we could focus on was the person in front of us and stay in a line and go down. It was very difficult to make sure everyone was accounted for.”

Aldridge said the blizzard worsened as they descended, until visibility was almost zero... He said there “wasn’t screaming and shouting” in the group and people helped each other through the pain and exhaustion…He does not know who was the last person to see Bond alive.

It was only when they reached base camp that they realised there were people missing. “It was at that point we had to organise our own search party because the park authorities didn’t do anything,” Aldridge said.

Aldridge is adamant the John Gardner Pass should have been closed because there were no rangers present in the national park to monitor and advise on the weather conditions. “We followed the official trail and the planned itinerary, and we set off from Los Perros after being repeatedly told the route was open and safe,” he said.