2019-03-01ReadersDigest_AUNZ

March• 2019 | 127

READER’S DIGEST

colleague. Alessandro Giancaterino,
themaîtred’ofthehotel’srestaurant,
was found buried nearby. Later, Del
Rosso’s body would be discovered
beneath the rubble that crushed him
as his hotel disintegrated.

ASTHEALPINETEAMprobed for
corpses, Giampaolo Matrone lay in a
coffin-sized pocket of air beneath ten
metresofsnow,iceandrubble.
He could hear nothing of what was
happening at the surface. Shock had
setinandhefeltnopain,nohun-
ger, no cold. Although the tempera-
ture was well below freezing, he felt
apowerfulurgetoshedeverything
thathewaswearing.Withgreatcon-
tortions,hewriggledfreeofhisjacket
andtoreoffhisrightshoesothathis
nakedfootlayagainsticeandsnow.
Hebegantodriftinandoutofcon-
sciousness.Surrealimagerydrifted
throughhismind.Atonepoint,
he was walking alongside his wife
throughMonterotondo,towardsthe
bakeryhisfamilyoperatedthere,
taking note of every shop, every
streetcorner,eachcrackinthepave-
ment.Thethoughtswerestrangeand
richly detailed. He imagined rescu-
ersswoopinginonmagiccarpets,
dressedlikeAladdininThe Arabian
Nights.Inanothervision,hisbest
friend,abodybuilder,materialised
on the mountain, lifting tons of con-
creteandsettingMatronefree.
Each time Matrone awoke he con-
fronted anew the terrible reality: he

wasburiedalive.Despairwashed

over him.Who is going to save us?he

asked himself.

ACryforHelp

Rescue specialist and expert canine

trainerLorenzoBottiarrivedonthe

mountainwithhisdogsonThursday

morning,thedayaftertheavalanche,

toassist.Lookingattheremainsof

thehotel,hemadeaquickassess-

ment:nochanceofsurvivors.

By now helicopters were bring-

ing firefighters who, like Botti, would

begin picking through the rubble.

Police technicians had set up an

antenna that allowed them to home in

on buried mobile phones. Wherever

there were phones, there would be

people – or, more likely, bodies.

Botti began by slithering into the

spa – which seemed remarkably

intact. He moved carefully past dan-

gling concrete and a reinforcing bar. At

the reception desk, he flipped through

the appointment book. It was blank

for Wednesday afternoon, confirm-

ing his hunch that the spa had been

empty when the avalanche struck.

Heturnedhisattentiontotheten-

metre-tall mound, buried under

snow,thatconstitutedthemain

structureofthehotel.Afterstudy-

ingacrudefloorplandrawnbySal-

zetta, Botti and his men mounted

thewreckage,shovelledthrough

four metres of snow, and, when they

foundthetopofthebuilding, began

sawing into the roof.