A friend of a British woman who tragically lost her life during a four-day expedition in Patagonia has shared the harrowing ordeal he and fellow trekkers experienced when caught in a fierce blizzard. Their brush with death left them convinced they wouldn’t make it out alive.

Victoria Bond, a 40-year-old from Cornwall, was among the five victims who perished on Monday as a powerful storm unleashed winds reaching up to 120 mph at Torres del Paine, Chile’s most frequented tourist attraction. The blizzard’s wrath claimed the lives of two Germans and two Mexicans as well, as it swept through the Patagonian park, renowned for its stunning granite peaks, vast glaciers, and diverse wildlife.

Amid the chaos, Victoria’s friend, Chris Aldridge, a film and TV director, recounted his terrifying experience on those icy trails. “Most of the time, I kept thinking, ‘Oh, this is where we die,’” he recalled, reflecting on the dire circumstances they faced.

Chris shared with the Daily Mail how relentless snow battered his face as he descended the mountain, his extremities gradually succumbing to the merciless cold. The group faced an unrelenting whiteout, prompting them to retreat in hopes of finding safety.

The Brit told the Daily Mail how endless snow rushed into his face as he hurtled down the mountain, his feet and hands beginning to succumb to the biting cold that had started to sink in.

In the face of perilously fast winds caused by a whiteout snowstorm, the director, along with the others he was trekking with, had made the decision to turn back to safety.

Victoria, who worked in PR, died alongside Cristina Calvillo Tovar and Julian Garcia Pimentel, from Mexico, and German natives Nadine Lichey and Andreas Von Pein.

Despite being an experienced hiker, having trekked across the Himalayas, Chris said he has never known terror like he did on Monday. 

But he said the ‘sheer determination not to die’ pushed him and others to keep going until they reached safety. 

Cornwall-based PR worker Victoria Bond, 40, died alongside other foreign tourists in Chile

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

Having spent some time in Argentina, Chris, Victoria and three others he was travelling with made their way into Chile to make the trek, where they noticed that the weather hitting the country was horrid. 

Chris told the Daily Mail: ‘The weather was pretty bad. It was p***ing it out on the first day, but it was fine. It was an easy walk – It just meant a lot of water and mud.’

The bad weather held for the next few days, until Monday – the day of the tragedy. 

Chris claimed that the weather forecasts for Monday had predicted winds of up to 100kmph (62mph), fast enough to be classified as a tropical storm. 

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

Leaving their accommodation at around 5.30am on Monday, November 17, the initial climb up to John Garner Pass, the highest point of Circuit O, was relatively easy, according to Chris. 

‘It’s just quite a lot of uphill, but through forests, just a lot of water, but no problems there. The problem was that wind descended.

‘We knew there’d be some winds, but obviously we didn’t know how bad it was going to be.’

Reuters reported that the area was struck by a snowstorm, causing whiteout conditions with fierce wind speeds surpassing 193 kmh (120 mph), equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, which Chris pointed out was ‘nearly double what was forecast’.

The group wasn’t prepared for these conditions, the TV director said: ‘[There] was ice. For that, you need crampons, you need ice picks and proper gear, which we didn’t have.

Chris, who provided this image of his route to and from the base, said they turned back amid poor weather

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

‘So we made a decision to come back down. Coming down was very difficult. It was a complete white out, you couldn’t see people in front of you.’

They turned back just before they reached John Garner Pass, Chris said, adding: ‘The conditions were just so horrific that people were physically exhausted and frozen.

‘The snow wasn’t expected. It was an absolute blizzard, and the winds were very high and people weren’t prepared and people didn’t have the right gear.’

Coming back down from their ascent was difficult, due to the conditions, Chris said. 

‘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].’ 

Chris said: ‘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. 

‘I was just trying to dig my heels and poles in, but nothing was stopping me. I aimed for some rocks to try and break the speed. 

‘I was wearing a helmet, but could have easily just flipped over. It was just about OK, just a few scratches. But it’s hard to breathe because the snow was so intense.

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

‘You just couldn’t look up. It was too painful. I wore glasses at one point, but they just got completely covered in ice. That didn’t really help either.’

He said others struggled going down as well, and were keenly aware of how wrong the descent could go: ‘I saw lots of people sliding at the very steep bit when it was icy.

Victoria, pictured in a boat in Cornwall, had shared updates about the trek in Patagonia before her death

Victoria shared footage of her and the other trekkers crossing raging rivers under drizzle and grey skies

‘You take a wrong slide and you just can’t control it. You’d hit a rock, hit your head, get concussed. That’s it, game over. If you stop, you’d get physically exhausted; you stop for too long, that’s it. If it gets too cold, can’t keep moving.

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

Along Circuit O, Chris said, there were large red poles to keep hikers on the right path. But in the snowstorm, the group could only just make out the next pole.

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

Upon arriving back at their camp, the group realised that many had suffered from serious injuries, Chris said: ‘It was still really windy and everyone was verging on hypothermia.

‘Lots of people with frostbite and some other superficial injuries.’

The group also realised that not everyone had made it back. 

Worse still, Chris said park rangers who ordinarily would’ve been there to deploy an immediate rescue mission were nowhere to be found, having been called back to their home towns to vote in Sunday’s general election – the first to have enforced compulsory voting since 2012. 

As a result, hikers, along with some volunteers at the camps, organised a makeshift rescue force to try and find the people who had gone missing. 

Chris, who said he was too shattered to go back up again, said: ‘We sent my friend up in the initial run up to locate people. Then, there was a separate team that went up with stretchers that we made out of mats and walking poles and tarpaulin.

‘There was another team that went to assist that went up later, once they got the stretcher there to help them bring it down.

‘We were up quite late that night, and then obviously at one point it had to be called.’

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

Chris said he felt a bittersweet pride in the hard work everyone at the camp put into rescuing the missing few. 

‘Everyone came together in the most extraordinary way. Even though everyone was struggling themselves, they were all helping each other. There was a lot of compassion. 

‘They went above and beyond. People were just throwing their equipment at each other. Whatever people wanted, they would give it.’

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

CONAF, the body in charge of Chile’s national parks, said in an earlier 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.

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