Mountains of the Patagonia Park Area

A glance at the six most prominent summits around Latitude 47° South

This is a brief description of mountains between the 46^th and 48^th parallel that are ranked as "Ultras", meaning that they stand out because their prominence is above 1500 meters.

Topographical prominence is derived from a mathematical formula that is graphically explained in Wikepedia and Peakbagger websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence

https://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=4914.

I have chosen to define my region as the “Patagonia Park Area” because the Park is in the center and the name serves as a reference to this transboundary section of southern South America. The six most prominent mountains can be spotted from the recently created Patagonia National Parks in Argentina and Chile.

Various maps and sources have been studied to determine the most accurate height interpretations. Discrepancies abound in this largely unexplored wilderness.

Observations and questions are welcome. 

I hope you enjoy this armchair exploration as much as I do. 

The area and the location of its six most prominent mountains

THE SIX PROMINENT GIANTS

SAN VALENTIN – 4032 m

Its exact height remains controversial, with some sources indicating 4058 meters or even a little more. But it is the undisputed giant of a large domain: you would need to travel 1,132 km in a straight line to northern Patagonia to find a higher summit (Volcán Domuyo). San Valentin´s prominence is 3,696 meters, certifying it as # 1 for the entire Patagonia and # 5 in all of South America.

San Valentín is a bulky massif with high shoulders rising from the North Patagonia Icecap. To the south stand Pico de Plata (3725 m) and Cerro Fiero (3415 m), arguably different mountains for climbers, but considered as secondary summits for the purpose of this survey since their proximity to San Valentín renders their prominence and isolation values negligible.

With the right conditions, the glaciated bulk of San Valentin is visible from a staggering 200 km away!

San Valentin as seen from the east. Main summit in the center, with Pico de Plata on the left and unnamed shoulder on the right (Photo by Francisco Croxatto)

SAN LORENZO – 3706 m

This solitary giant is located easterly of the main ranges and therefore rises spectacularly when viewed from Argentina. San Lorenzo´s 10 km ridgeline, entirely above 3000 meters, marks the international border. Its main axis runs in a North-South direction connecting several very high secondary summits that drop off in all directions.

Its prominence is a very significant 3319 m, which puts it as # 2 in Patagonia and a respectable # 9 in all of South America. Its glistening glaciers and rock faces can be seen as a massive block crowned with an elegant summit from a distance close to 200 km. Due to its easterly location it gets better weather than the Icecap mountains. It is an absolute eye-catcher easy to admire from Route 40 and fulfills the “dream mountain” requisites.

San Lorenzo as seen from the east. Its entire ridge is above 3300 meters

ARENALES – 3365 m

This mountain might in fact be a dormant or extinct volcano. It´s difficult to say because it lies deep in the North Patagonia Icecap. Its bulbous, fully glaciated summit (3365 m) stands out but its prominence (1900 m) is not outstanding because Arenales is connected over a relatively high ridge to San Valentín which lies 64 km to the north.

Arenales can be spotted from high points along the road in Valle Chacabuco and even from vantage locations due east in Argentina.

Arenales rises in the distance. Notice the icecap, seen as a white horizon on the right.
This is a view from the east in Patagonia Park Chile. (Photo borrowed from Tompkins Conservation)

PENITENTES – 2943 m

An important mountain sometimes overshadowed by its proximity to San Lorenzo, which stands to the west across a deep glacial valley. The key col connecting them lies at a very low 1331 meters above sea level. As a result, the prominence of Penitentes is 1612 m, enough to qualify as an Ultra.

Penitentes is an attractive single-summit mountain that looks like a smaller sibling of San Lorenzo from the vicinity of Route 40.

Penitentes as seen from the east in the Rio Lacteo valley, Perito Moreno National Park
(Photo by Tomas and Silvestro Franchini)

ZEBALLOS – 2700+ m

A volcanic massif with half a dozen summits reaching up to 2700 m sitting on a vast basaltic plateau known as Meseta Lago Buenos Aires. A unique mountain that looks flattened due to its very wide base, lies to the east of the Andes and rises from the steppe. Zeballos has a very respectable prominence value of 2228 m, ranking #9 in all of Patagonia.

The Zeballos Volcanic Complex features a sizeable glacier and smaller debris-covered bodies of ice hidden between the ridges of what may have been craters obliterated by erosion. It´s probably the first geographic landmark placed on a regional map (in 1880) since it is visible from a great distance. It is also a tehuelche sacred mountain where, according to legend, the world was created.

Zeballos as seen from the southeast in the Meseta Lago Buenos Aires (Patagonia National Park Argentina)

CASTILLO – 2675 m

A very attractive mountain and a frequent “post-card image” of the area. It has the town of Villa Cerro Castillo at its feet, providing easy access to trails into the recently designated namesake National Park.

Cerro Castillo crowns a range of equally attractive mountains and, being the highest of the group, cashes in a prominence mark of 2088 meters. Due to its location, the “Cordillera Castillo” group makes a beautiful backdrop from the road to Puerto Ibañez, from the ferry crossing the lake to Chile Chico, and from the southern shores of the lake in Argentina.

Castillo as seen from across the lake in Patagonia National Park Argentina

South Patagonia Ice-Cap: a view from above

A beautiful image of a portion of the Ice-Cap, taken in March 2007 by NASA (file in public domain taken from Wikipedia).

We can tell the photo was taken around mid-morning because the teeth-like shadows of the mountains are projected on the flat surface of ice pointing roughly south-west. The height from which the photo was taken is undisclosed.

The denuded granitic intrusion that makes up the FitzRoy and Torre towers is at the lower left corner. The long glacier tongue extending to the right with a distinct medial moraine is Glaciar Chico flowing towards Lago O´Higgins.

The nature of the Ice-Cap can only be fathomed from above, as is portrayed in this image: the vast areas of featureless ice standing between seemingly isolated mountain groups indicate that relief below 1500 meters above sea level is buried under thick layers of ice.

Among the mountains rising "like islands in an ocean", the bulk of Volcán Lautaro (up to 3627 m high) stands out at the top of the photo, a little to the right of the center.

Future entries in this blog will deal with volcanic activity in the area, and with the heroic first crossing of the Ice-Cap, in 1951.

Receding glacier in the Fitz Roy area

Glaciar Grande at Lago Torre (photos from 1990 and 2013)

As far as I know, no photos have been published comparing the dramatic changes this glacier has gone through in the last few years.

In the early 1990s the glacier still held a grip on the peninsula and island, but its loss of overall mass was becoming apparent on its "deflating" surface. 

By 1999 local mountain guides were regularly taking tourists onto the ice for a short hike with crampons. The front of the glacier was becoming detached from the tip of the peninsula. Most noticeably from 2002 onwards was the fact that people had to walk a little further down the slope from the forest above in order to reach the ice.

More and more people enjoyed the experience of this "Glaciar Torre Ice-Trek" while the tongue of ice moved away from the island around 2005.

In november 2011 the ice remaining in the corner of the peninsula and the slope gave way. With its melting away the slope directly above it became so unstable it made scrambling down it extremely dangerous. Now only climbers going to Cerro Torre and other mountains approached via the glacier attempt to navigate the loose boulders and rocks to reach the ice.

The terminal part of this glacier has now all the signs and symptoms of a terminally ill one. The section on the right of the photo has become stagnant and is fast turning into a mass of rock cemented by ice, while the front in the central and left side recedes alarmingly and becomes thinner every year.

The older photo was scanned from Lonely Planet´s "Trekking in the Patagonian Andes" (1992 edition), the most recent one was taken by Mike Wrob last March (2013). 

A brief history of the exploration of the area, aided by interesting old maps

An introductory glance at how the area was known at different times in the recent past.

The old maps were borrowed from the David Rumsey Map Collection (davidrumsey.com)

This German map of 1844 depicts the degree of knowledge then possessed about Patagonia and, with the added southern polar area, how land in the southern hemisphere was believed to lie in relation to the recently "discovered" Antarctic. This view of land-masses nearest to the South Pole is, I believe, quite accurate for the time.

Regarding our area of interest, surprinsing detail is given to the coasts of Patagonia while the hinterland appears almost entirely blank. Scale is 1 : 7.700.000 for Patagonia. More details shown in the next map.

This map of 1857 is of roughly the same scale as the one above it, but I have zoomed on our study area to see details more clearly. Within the still blank hinterland a large lake appears just north of what would be the 47º S parallel. 

The belief in the existence of this body of water dates back to the 1750s, but the source of this knowledge is obscure. The lake was given different names, and it´s outlet was mistakenly drawn to the east or south. It was not until the late 1890s that it became conclusively proved that it drained through it´s western end to the Pacific. This shows how recently the area became fully explored.

A great leap forward in the exploration of this latitude was given by Musters` (1870) and Moyano`s (1880) overland trips. Their paths from south to north are shown in this map of 1883 (they diverge at the indian camp called "Pagie").

Moyano had more time and instruments for mapping. He named and accurately placed "Zeballos Mt", and christened the big lake "Buenos Aires", though he could only explore it´s eastern section. With some inaccuracies, the river valleys of the eastern side of the map fall into place.

This map hints at a boundary between Argentina and Chile but absolutely lacks all features pertaining to the high mountains and valleys of the area. Almost twenty years would elapse before the outlet of the lake became explored, the mountains charted, and the international border drawn in 1902.

And finally, a satellite image borrowed from Google Maps. The eastern body of the lake is joined to a long fjord-like arm extending to the south-west. A large ice-cap separates it from the islands of the Pacific. This "North Patagonian Ice-cap remained shrouded in mystery until the 1920s, when it was first explored. Its true extent and main features did not become known until aerial observations were carried out in the following decades.