Cordillera del Paine

The Cordillera del Paine is a small but spectacular mountain group in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. It is located 280 km (170 mi) north of Punta Arenas, and about 1,960 km south of the Chilean capital Santiago. It belongs to the Commune of Torres del Paine in Última Esperanza Province of Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region. No accurate surveys have been published, and published elevations have been claimed to be seriously inflated, so the elevations given on this page are all approximate.  

Peaks 

The highest summit of the range is probably Cerro Paine Grande, at 51°00′00″S 73°05′39″W. Its elevation is usually claimed to be 3,050 m but analysis of local photography suggests that it may be nearer to 2,750 m. The best-known and most spectacular summits are the three Towers of Paine (Spanish: Torres del Paine, 50°57′09″S 72°59′23″W). They are gigantic granite monoliths shaped by the forces of glacial ice. The South Tower of Paine (about 2,500 m, at 50°57′33″S 72°59′42″W) is now thought to be the highest of the three, although this has not been definitely established. It was first climbed by Armando Aste. The Central Tower of Paine (about 2,460 m or 8,100 feet) was first climbed in 1963 by Chris Bonington and Don Whillans, and the North Tower of Paine (about 2,260 m) was first climbed by Guido Monzino. Other summits include the Cuerno Principal, about 2,100 m but often quoted at 2,600 m, and Cerro Paine Chico, which is usually correctly quoted at about 2,650 m. The radiometric age for the quartz diorite at Cerro Payne is 12 ± 2 million years. by the rubidium-strontium method and 13 ± 1 million years. by the potassium-argon method.

Hiking 

The Torres del Paine National Park—an area of 2,400 km²—was declared a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 1978 and is a popular hiking destination. There are clearly marked and well maintained paths and many refugios which provide shelter and basic services. Views are breathtaking.

Hikers can opt for a day trip to see the towers, walk the popular "W" route in about five days, or trek the full circle in 8–9 days.

The "W" route is by far the most popular, and is named for the shape of the route. Hikers start and finish at either of the base points of the "W", performing each of the three shoots as a day trip. The five points of the W, from west to east, are:

• Glacier Grey, a large glacier calving into the lake of the same name. Camping is available next to Refugio Grey.
• Refugio Pehoe, situated on Lago Pehoe. This site offers good views of the "horns" of Torres del Paine.
• Valle del Francés ("Frenchman's Valley"), often rated as the best scenery in the whole park. The path leads up into a snowy dead-end, where several small glaciers are visible.
• Hosteria las Torres, a large hotel at the base of the mountain range.
• The Torres del Paine themselves, large rock formations over a small lake, high in the mountains.

The longer "circuit" walk includes all the sights of the "W", but avoids most backtracking, by connecting Glacier Grey and the Torres del Paine around the back of the mountain range.

Boats and buses provide transport between Hosteria las Torres, Refugio Pehoe, and the park entrance at Laguna Amarga.

It is a national park and thus hikers are not allowed to stray from the paths. Camping is only allowed at specified campsites, and wood fires are prohibited in the whole park.

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Monte Fitz Roy

Monte Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén, Cerro Fitz Roy, or simply Mount Fitz Roy) is a mountain located near El Chaltén village, in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in Patagonia, on the border between Argentina and Chile. First climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone, it remains among the most technically challenging mountains on Earth for mountaineers. Monte Fitz Roy is the basis for the Patagonia clothing logo following Yvon Chouinard's ascent and subsequent film in 1968.

Discovery and naming

Francisco Moreno first saw the mountain on 2 March 1877. He named it Fitz Roy, in honour of Robert FitzRoy, who, as captain of the HMS Beagle had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted large parts of the Patagonian coast.

Cerro is a Spanish word meaning hill, while Chaltén comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak. Fitz Roy, however, was only one of a number of peaks the Tehuelche called Chaltén.

Geographical setting

It has been agreed by Argentina and Chile that their international border detours eastwards to pass over the main summit, but a large part of the border to the south of the summit, as far as Cerro Murallón, remains undefined. The mountain is the symbol of the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, which includes its representation on its coat of arms.


Notable ascents

• 1952 Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone via Southeast Ridge (aka Franco-Argentine Ridge)(First Ascent - Feb 2, 1952).
• 1965 Carlos Comesaña and José Luis Fonrouge (from Argentina) via Supercanaleta (1,600m, TD+ 5.10 90deg) in 2-1/2 days (Second Ascent).
• 1968 Southwest Ridge aka The Californian Route (3rd ascent of peak). FA by Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Lito Tejada-Flores and Douglas Tompkins (all USA).
• 2002 Dean Potter, solo Supercanaleta.
• 2009 Colin Haley, solo Supercanaleta.

The mountain has a reputation of being "ultimate", despite its average height (although being the highest peak in the Los Glaciares park, it is less than half the size of the Himalayan giants), because the sheer granite faces present long stretches of arduous technical climbing. In addition, the weather in the area is exceptionally inclement and treacherous. It also attracts many photographers thanks to its otherworldly shape. The area, while still fairly inaccessible, was even more isolated until the recent development of El Chaltén village and El Calafate international airport. The mountain climb, however, remains extremely difficult and is the preserve of very experienced climbers. Today, when a hundred people may reach the summit of Mount Everest in a single day, Monte Fitz Roy may only be successfully ascended once a year.

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Cerro Torre

Cerro Torre is one of the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in South America. It is located in a region which is disputed between Argentina and Chile, west of Cerro Chalten (also known as Fitz Roy). The peak is the highest in a four mountain chain: the other peaks are Torre Egger (2,685 m), Punta Herron, and Cerro Stanhardt. The top of the mountain often has a mushroom of rime ice, formed by the constant strong winds, increasing the difficulty of reaching the actual summit.

First ascent

Cesare Maestri claimed in 1959 that he and Toni Egger had reached the summit and that Egger had been swept to his death by an avalanche while they were descending. Inconsistencies in Maestri's account, and the lack of bolts, pitons or fixed ropes on the route, has led most mountaineers to doubt Maestri's claim. In 2005, Ermanno Salvaterra, Rolando Garibotti and Alessandro Beltrami, after many attempts by world-class Alpinists, put up a confirmed route on the face that Maestri claimed to have climbed.

Maestri went back to climb again Cerro Torre in 1970 together with Ezio Alimonta, Daniele Angeli, Claudio Baldessarri, Carlo Claus and Pietro Vidi, trying a new route on the southeast face. With the aid of a gas-powered compressor drill, Maestri equipped 350 m of rock with bolts and got to the end of the rocky part of the mountain, just below the ice mushroom. Maestri claimed that "the mushroom is not part of the mountain" and did not continue to the summit. The compressor was left, tied to the last bolts, 100 m below the top. The route Maestri followed is now famous as the Compressor route and was climbed again all the way to the summit in 1979 by Jim Bridwell and Steve Brewer. Most parties on the route consider the ascent complete only if they summit the ice-rime mushroom to the top.

The first undisputed ascent was made by the 1974 Italian expedition composed by Daniele Chiappa, Mario Conti, Casimiro Ferrari, and Pino Negri.


Subsequent ascents

• 1959 Cesare Maestri and Toni Egger (IT) - disputed ascent of West Face. Egger died.
• 1970 Maestri et al (IT), Compressor route to 60 meters below summit.
• 1974 Daniele Chiappa, Mario Conti, Casimiro Ferrari and Pino Negri (IT). First Undisputed Ascent.
• 1977 Dave Carman, John Bragg and Jay Wilson of the USA. First Alpine-style ascent.
• 1979 Jim Bridwell and Steve Brewer complete climb of Compressor Route.
• 1985 July 3–8 First Winter Ascent by Paolo Caruso, Maurizio Giarolli and Ermanno Salvaterra (IT).
• 1985 November 26 Compressor route - first solo by Marco Pedrini (Swiss). Filmed by Fulvio Mariani: Cerro Torre Cumbre.
• 2004 Five Years to Paradise (ED:VI 5.10b A2 95deg, 1000m) (right center on East Face): Ermanno Salvaterra, Alessandro Beltrami, and Giacomo Rossetti (all from Italy).
  

In popular culture

Cerro Torre was featured in the 1991 film Scream of Stone, directed by Werner Herzog and starring Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Hans Kammerlander, and Donald Sutherland.

Jon Krakauer, in Into Thin Air, mentions the mountain as one of his earlier difficult ascents (1992): "I'd scaled a frightening, mile-high spike of vertical and overhanging granite called Cerro Torre; buffeted by hundred-knot winds, plastered with frangible atmospheric rime, it was once (though no longer) thought to be the world's hardest mountain".

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Sugarloaf Mountain (Brazil)

Sugarloaf Mountain, is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the harbor, its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.  

Overview 

The mountain is only one of several monolithic morros of granite and quartz that rise straight from the water's edge around Rio de Janeiro. A glass-paneled cable car (in popular Portuguese, bondinho - more properly called teleférico), capable of holding 65 passengers, runs along a 1400-metre route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972/1973 and in 2008. The cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Pão de Açúcar mountain. To reach the summit, passengers take two cable cars. The first ascends to the shorter Morro de Açúcar, 220 meters high. The second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar. The Italian-made bubble-shaped cars offer passengers 360-degree views of the surrounding city. Each car travels only three minutes from start to finish. Departures are available every 20 minutes between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm and the fare is US$11 for Morro de Açúcar or US$22 for the whole way to Pão de Açúcar.

Rock climbing

Visitors can watch rock climbers on Sugarloaf and the other two mountains in the area: Morro da Babilônia (Babylon Mountain), and Morro da Urca (Urca's Mountain). Together, they form one of the largest urban climbing areas in the world, with more than 270 routes, between 1 and 10 pitches long. Some routes on Sugarloaf are:

• Italianos, 5.10a, 2 pitches. Beautiful and well protected face climbing. It can be connected to other routes, in a total of 6 pitches to the top.

• Stop Chimney, 5.6, 7 pitches. A classic runout but easy chimney.

• Lagartão, 5.11c, 7 pitches. The first two pitches are traditional climbing, the rest is bolted.

• Ibis, 5.10d A1, 10 pitches. Runout and committed. Some parties climb it in one day, sleeping on one of the ledges in the first half of the route.

 

Appearances in media

• "Now, Voyager" (1942) Starring Bette Davis.
• In the 1979 James Bond movie, Moonraker, the villainous henchman Jaws (played by Richard Kiel) attempts to kill 007 (Roger Moore) and the agent's ally, Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), on a cable car. However, Bond and Goodhead escape and Jaws collides with the building at the bottom of the cable car route, demolishing the building but escaping unscathed.
• Herb Alpert recorded a song entitled "Sugarloaf" for his 1982 album Fandango.
• In the Simpsons episode "Blame it on Lisa", Homer's kidnappers meet with the rest of the family for the exchange between two cable cars.
• In Modern Warfare 2, this mountain can be seen from the map, favela.
• In the movie Rio, the mountain can be seen several times throughout the film.

 

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Pedra Azul

Pedra Azul (Portuguese for "blue stone") is a Brazilian city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the northeast of the state, in the Jequitinhonha River valley region. The population in 2007 was 24,851 in a total area of 1,619 km².

The city belongs to the mesoregion of Jequitinhonha and to the microregion of Pedra Azul. The elevation of the municipal seat is 617 meters. It became a municipality in 1911. This municipality is located 16 km. to the east of the important BR-116 highway, which links Rio de Janeiro to Salvador. The boundary with the state of Bahia is 49 km. to the northeast.

Pedra Azul is also a statistical microregion that includes the following municipalities: Cachoeira de Pajeú, Comercinho, Itaobim, Medina, and Pedra Azul.

The main economic activities are cattle raising and farming. The GDP was R$111,200,000 (2005). There were 2 banking agencies in 2006. In the rural area there were 570 farms with around 1,700 people involved in the agricultural sector. There were 58 tractors, a ratio of one tractor for every 10 farms. The main crops were bananas, coffee, passion fruit, beans, manioc, and corn. In the health sector there were 10 health clinics and 1 hospital with 66 beds. The score on the Municipal Human Development Index was 0.660. This ranked Pedra Azul 709 out of 853 municipalities in the state, with Poços de Caldas in first place with 0.841 and Setubinha in last place with 0.568. See Frigoletto for the complete list.

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Gocta Cataracts a perennial waterfall with two drops

Gocta is a perennial waterfall with two drops located in Peru's province of Chachapoyas in Amazonas, approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) to the northeast of Lima. It flows into the Cocahuayco River. Although the waterfall had been well known to locals for centuries (it is in full view of a nearby village), its existence was not made known to the world until after an expedition made in 2005 by a German, Stefan Ziemendorff, with a group of Peruvian explorers.

At the time of the discovery Ziemendorff successfully persuaded the Peruvian government to map the falls and to measure their height. On 11 March 2006, following his third expedition to the falls, he held a press conference, the contents of which were published by several of the world's wire services. He stated that the total height was measured at 771 metres (2,530 ft), which ranked Gocta as the third tallest free-leaping waterfall in the world after Angel Falls in Venezuela and Tugela Falls in South Africa. However, this was apparently based on outdated and incomplete information gleaned from the National Geographic Society, and Ziemendorff's comments as to the waterfalls' ranking have since been widely disputed. Citing various encyclopedias, reference books, and webpages accessible through Google, Gocta Cataracts are unofficially listed as the world's fifth-tallest, after adding Ramnefjellsfossen (Norway) and Mongefossen (Norway). Furthermore, The World Waterfall Database ranks Gocta as the 16th tallest.

The waterfall, which can be seen from kilometers away, has been christened Gocta Falls, after the name of the nearest settlement.

The daily El Comercio said that the impressive waterfall had remained unknown to outsiders until now, because local people feared the curse of a beautiful blond mermaid who lived in its waters, if they revealed its whereabouts. "The falls are supposed to be protected by a white haired mermaid like spirit whos hair can be seen flowing down the massive U shaped walls at the bottom of the falls."


On 13 March 2006, the Peruvian government announced to the press that the area surrounding the falls would be developed as a tourist attraction, with a target date for sometime in mid-2007. A small hotel was built 6-miles from the base of the waterfall, with all rooms having views of the waterfall. Tourists can now hike the trails by foot or horse to the misty base of the waterfall. The nearby town of Chachapoyas is located at an altitude of 2235 meters (7657 ft). The waterfall is at a slightly higher altitude and thus clouds can be seen to occasionally eclipse part of the view.

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Auyantepui location of Angel Falls

Auyantepui (Auyantepuy, Auyan-Tepui or Aiyan-Tepui), which in the language of the native Pemon people means "Devil's Mountain". It is visited on average three times a year. Despite this, it is one of the most famous tepuis (table-top mountains) in Venezuela. It is one of the largest (but not the highest) tepuis with an area of 700 km2 (270 sq mi) in the Guayana Highlands and is located in the Gran Sabana region in Bolivar State.

Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, drops from a cleft near the summit. The falls are 979 meters (3,212 ft) high, with an uninterrupted descent of 807 meters (2,648 ft). Angel Falls is more than 19 times higher than Niagara Falls.

Auyantepui achieved international fame in 1933 when Angel Falls was accidentally discovered by Jimmie Angel, a bush pilot who was on a trip in search of gold ore. During a return trip in 1937, Angel crashed his small plane Flamingo on top of the heart-shaped table mountain. It took him and his crew 11 days to walk down off the mountain. He was immortalized when the waterfall was named after him.

Auyantepui is a giant among the large plateaus. It encompasses 650 km2 (250 sq mi) and its peak is 2,535 meters (8,317 ft) high.

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