Dual Survival, S03E01, Mars on Earth

Mars on Earth

Atacama Desert, Chile

Episode scenario

In this episode, Cody Lundin and Joe Teti will take the role of a power para glider, who crash landed on one of the Atacama Desert's towering volcanoes in Chile, 14.500 feet above sea level. 

High altitude

The Atacama Desert, a place so barren and geographically unique that NASA named it "Mars on Earth", and uses it to test rovers bound for the red planet. The Sahara for instance gets 2 millimeters of rain per year, the Atacama Desert gets 0.1 each year. What makes the environment so terrifying is the altitude, with the cold, with the lack of atmosphere, with the lack of water, surviving here is no breeze.

At this high altitude, there's limited oxygen which makes it very hard to breath. Cody and Joe has to strip the para glider which they found, and then head for lower elevation. At the para glider they find a yellow helmet, a multitool and a altimeter, there's no gas in the tank of the para glider and the battery is dead as well. They also find a water container, which fits into a backpack, the container is filled with a quarter of water, they also find the parachute, along with the reserve chute as well. Last but not least they find a matchbox, and as they open it, one single match can be found inside. When one ascents too quickly, one can fall victim to hypoxia, which leads to mountain sickness and eventually death. Both Cody and Joe knows that they have to decent down the mountain, but Joe also knows that higher up the mountain there may be ice, but ascending further can be very dangerous. Joe proposes that he goes alone, but Cody is not much for that idea, but Cody knows that water is crucial to survival, so he agrees that they split up, they use a rock as a rally point, once Joe has gone and collected the ice. The worst case scenario is that they would be separated for the night,  if Joe doesn't manage to descent again before nightfall and rally up with Cody. Joe starts his ascent up the mountain and Cody heads downhill towards their rally point, to look for shelter. It is crucial that the shelter protects from the wind, as the nights in the Atacama Desert are freezing, dropping into the teens, which puts hypothermia into play as well. Cody has to go beyond their rally point, because it doesn't protect enough from the wind, he finds another suitable spot a little further. He will then use the parachute to create a "lean to shelter", which keeps them out of the wind, that also gives them the possibility of a reflector fire, which reflects heat back onto them via the rock. Joe has now ascended to 17.000 feet above sea level, he has also found ice, which he chops up and places in the reserve parachute, so that he can carry it down again. Joe begins his decent downhill again, to rally up with Cody.

Joe has reached their rally point, but can't see Cody. He has to find Cody within the next 30 minutes, or he has no choice but to sleep alone for the night. Cody has finished the "lean to shelter" and is ready to start a fire with the only match he has, he only has one single change to light the kindling he's gathered, he strikes the match and manages to light up the fire. Meanwhile Joe has gone beyond their original rally point, and is shouting out for Cody, as Cody has finished the fire he heads towards the sound of Joe yelling. Joe spotted the helmet that Cody put up on top of the rock. Reunited, they head inside the shelter so that Joe can warm up again, they use the helmet to melt the ice which Joe took down with him. As the night comes to an end, they get ready to keep going, the ice they melted came down to about 3 liters, which they fill into the bladder container, which they found at the para glider.

Descending down

Joe and Cody has to descend down the mountain, they have to get below 8.000 feet above sea level, where hypoxia and mountain sickness is less likely to happen. As they reach 13.000 feet, they see a change in the terrain, and Joe suspects that it is the last place in which they will be able to acquire firewood for a fire. Cody on the other hand, disagrees with Joe, he doesn't think that they have to gather firewood, since he hasn't had the need to do it in 23 years. Joe is still positive that they will need it down the road, and eventually Cody gives in and agrees to carry some wood along, but only because Joe had carried ice down the mountain for them to drink, the previous day. As they keep descending down, they notice that the terrain is getting steeper and they have no idea whats ahead of them. Joe and Cody eventually end up in a canyon, where they have to climb down, Joe states that one should always keep 3 points of contact when free climbing down, whether its two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand doesn't matter. Suddenly they reach a massive drop off, which appears to be from 30-50 feet, they have to decide whether they want to go back and find another way, or if they should come up with a way to get down the drop off. They come up with the idea of using the reserve parachute as a rope, so they can climb down, they twist the parachute. They also have to anchor the parachute to something, and for that they need rope which can handle it, they twist the parachute cord, so that the tensile strength doubles. Tensile strength is the maximum load a material can hold when under pressure. Usually in climbs like this, one should use three anchor points, but Cody and Joe are limited to only one. Joe climbs down first and makes it to the bottom of the drop off, so does Cody as it is his turn next.

Deep in the canyons where Cody and Joe are, sunshine rarely reaches the floor, finding a shelter for the night, now becomes top priority. At a Y-intersection in the canyon, they split up each taking a path, to try and find a suitable shelter for the night. Cody comes up empty handed, but Joe on the other hand finds a location which is suitable. Cody stresses that core protection is vital, one should always keep their chest area warm. Joe wants to light a fire, and to preserve firewood he wants to burn one stick at a time, Cody tells him that it's not possible to burn one stick at a time, and they also probably use up a quarter of their firewood, just to get the fire started. There's probably only enough wood for just a single hour, so they agree to use the firewood at the coldest part of the night, since the nights are 12 hours long in the Atacama Desert, in the winter times. They both wrap up in the same parachute, so that they can use their body heat to warm each other up. Cody and Joe has descended from high altitudes of a volcano, gone through deep canyons, to emerge at a sun scorched  salt flat. Water now becomes top priority, the 3 day rule says that you can go 3 days without water, but in the Atacama Desert that is greatly reduced, due to elevation and dryness. They continue to head downhill, as water would travel downhill as well. They're at an altitude of 9.000 feet above sea level. In the Atacama Desert, a person can go through 4 liters of water an hour, Cody and Joe has been rationing 3 liters over the past 3 days. They eventually run out of water, but they keep descending, they seek to find shade, as shade can reduce dehydration. They find some shade by a rock and they decide to take a rest, at this time Joe decides that he's going to drink his own piss to gain a psychological edge. Urine is double the amount of zodiam than normal body saline, almost 2%. Joe states that he's a survivor and if this kills him it was his time to go anyway.

Out of the desert

The Atacama Desert in Chile, was formed by earthquakes and lava flow, some 145 million year ago. Cody and Joe are now at 7.500 feet above sea level, and has now descended below 8.000, hypoxia and mountain sickness is less likely at this point. As they reach a huge canyon they can hear water flowing, there's a river at the bottom of the canyon, but they're 400 feet above it, they look for the safest place to descend into it. They find a steep sand bank which leads down to the river, the sand down is deep and they kind of have to jump in it, Joe states that it's like a controlled fall. They eventually reach the river at the bottom of the canyon, and they immediately drink from it, without disinfecting the water first. They've found a place where they now can rest and re-hydrate, before they keep pressing on, to get out of the desert. Joe surveys the area and finds a tree, which in the winter time drops seeds, which is similar to dried beans and are edible, they taste sweet. Joe collects a whole bunch of the beans and returns to Cody. Cody explains that the beans have a lot of carbohydrates which gets into your blood quickly, it raises your glucose levels, so they're perfect in their situation. They decide to head downstream and eventually they see lama's by the river, along with a lady. Water equals life, so wherever there's water there's bound to be civilization.