A scant diet of raisin and rodents was all that kept a Uruguayan man alive after being stranded in the snowy Andes Mountains for four months.  He was found alive and rushed to hospital over the weekend.

58-year old Raul Fernando Gomez Circunegui was trying to cross the Andes in May, but when his motorcycle broek down he tried to make it on foot.  Winter was faster than him, and he apparently lost his orientation during two snowstorms.

Argentine officials measuring the snowpack found Gomez alive, hunkered down in a shelter in a valley between 2,900 and 4,500 meters above sea level.  He’d lost 20 kilograms and was severely dehydrated, eating only raisins and sugar left behind in mountain cabins, and rats caught with a makeshift trap.

Despite the hardship, Gomez won’t be cooped up in hospital for too long.

“He's a patient with high blood pressure, a history of smoking and signs of undernourishment,” Doctors say, “he's going to be fine and in a few days we're going to discharge him.”