Freezing mountaineer saved by telemarketer

Reuters/CNN ^ | June 29, 2002

[Cultural Jihad]

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- A hiker is stranded in South America's Andes mountains when a blizzard begins. He reaches into his backpack for his cell phone -- only to find his prepaid minutes are up.

The Colombian mountaineer slowly begins freezing to death, surviving for 24 hours with his only warmth coming from carefully measured doses of brandy. Then suddenly, at above 12,500 feet, Leonardo Diaz hears a familiar ring.

[Cultural Jihad]

Posted for discussion puposes only.

[Cultural Jihad]

BTTT

[summer]

BTTT!

[Rodney King]

Interesting, except that brandy does not actually make you warmer, and the whole batteries in the snow thing is BS.

[meyer]

Ten Gazillion phone calls and one of them actually helps somebody. Not enough to get me to like telemarketers though.

[DoctorMichael]

Out of nowhere, a phone company solicitor is calling on his cell phone, asking if he would like to buy more time.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

[Jhoffa_]

I am speechless.

After all the mean, nasty things I have done to telemarketers (and I am sure I am in good company here) I personally think it's AMAZING he didn't say:

"You're freezing in the Andes and want me to save you? HAH! I heard that one before pal, if you don't want the damn minutes then it's fine by me!" SLAM!

[patton]

OK, for the silly folks out there that believe this stuff - First of all, brandy, in a cold-weather environment, will kill you. It does not freeze, and will cause burns exactly the same as if you drank burning napalm.

Next, batteries loose about 70% of their power when cold. Instead of throwing the battery in the snow, the kid should have stuck it in his armpit.

Finally, it strikes me as perfectly believable, that if one is dying of exposure in a snowstorm, on the side of some godforsaken mountain, a telemarketer will call.

[Jhoffa_]

The whole thing sounds like a snow job actually..

Oh, whoops.

[Cultural Jihad]

Bell South must have a large calling plan!

[small voice in the wilderness]

Ten million useless, disrupting, annoying, maddening interuptions a year and...

I still want them to put me on their Do Not Call List. I'll take my chances.

[TheLooseThread]

So the people who wrote this story don't even realize that freezing the batteries had nothing to do with it working after a 30 min wait.

The news is the eyes and ears of the people. Our eyes and ears are connected to a retard.

[Cultural Jihad]

Was this story really about you, Leonardo, er, "small voice in the wilderness"? ;)

[small voice in the wilderness]

Bwahahaha!! "Can you hear me now??" "Can you hear me now??"

[RWG]

A pathetic rationale for disturbing dinner.

[Cultural Jihad]

"In very cold weather, abstain entirely from liquor when on the road, because you will freeze twice as quickly when under its influence."
- An 1877 list of "tips for stagecoach travelers" genuine?http://www.snopes.com/language/document/stagetip.htm

[cva66snipe]

Heat can to a certain extent be used to get a little bit more life from a battery. As well on about any type of electronic equipment extreme cold is not your friend nor is extreme heat. Even on a car in real extreme cold weather {below zero} it's wise to place a car battery indoors till needed it's more likely to be able to start the car.

As for getting a call in the high Andees??????? Especially on a 800- 900 mhz cell phone? Me thinks the reporters perhaps had been endulging in the Brandy as well. Sounds like a folk legend and not a well thought out one at that.

[_Jim]

Sounds like a folk legend and not a well thought out one at that.

Agreed ...

[_Jim]

"So, I took off (the dead) battery and flung it into the snow. After half an hour, it was working again."

Doubtful - HIGHLY doubtful.

IF anything LESS chemical activity would have been had, not more (the basis upon which a *battery* works).

Now, if he'd have slipped it down his nickers for awhile ...

[_Jim]

Out of nowhere, a phone company solicitor is calling on his cell phone, asking if he would like to buy more time.

If ANYTHING (once again) -

- he would have been PROMPTED for a CC number the next time he tried to use his "currently-out-of-minutes" phone ..

Here in the states in some cellular markets it used to be that you were *prompted* if you were to try and make a call - out of your normal service area - the call could be billed to a credit card.

This story does not 'ring' true ...