A photograph of the landing site taken by rescuers when they reached the plane. There is no date on the photo, but there is a feeling that it happened much later, the snow had settled, and Guillaume fell precisely in winter.
“…Here, I saw a black flat space beneath me, it helped me level the plane. It was the mountain lake Laguna Diamante. I knew it lay in a deep basin, and one side – the Maipu volcano – rose to six thousand nine hundred meters. Although I broke free from the clouds, I was still blinded by snow whirlwinds, and if I tried to leave the lake, I would inevitably crash into the rocky walls of the basin. I circled and circled above it at an altitude of thirty meters until the fuel ran out. I circled for two hours, like a circus horse in the arena. Then I landed – and flipped over. I crawled out from under the wreckage, but the storm knocked me down. I got up – knocked down again. I had to crawl under the cabin, dig a hole in the snow, and take cover there. I covered myself from all sides with mailbags and sat like that for two days.
And then the storm subsided, and I went. I walked for five days and four nights.”
Saint-Exupéry, “Planet of People”