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Original caption:
I literally went into the wild in Patagonia all by myself, with only a backpack, a tent, a little stove and a lot of food to be self-sufficient the entire time. I hiked the 135 km long O-trek in Torres del Paine in Chile for 9 days, hiked for 3 days in the El Chaltèn area in Argentina (Mt. Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre) and been to the Perito Moreno glacier. Filmed in March 2019.
Shot on iPhone X, Fujifilm XT2 and GoPro Hero 5.
The rugged peaks of Cerro Torre
In my view the peaks of Cerro Torre closely resemble crooked dinosaur teeth. From the Torre glacier steep walls of granite rise a mere 1200m. The highest peak of the Cerro Torre Group is Cerro Torre with 3127 m, followed by its neighbor Torre Egger with 2685 m. So, what happened in geological time to make these peaks so rugged? The mudstones and sandstones of the Cerro Torre and Punta Barossa formation are intruded by a 8x12x12 km big granite laccolith. A laccolith is a sheet intrusion which is injected in sedimentary rock (in this case mudstone and sandstone). Often the surface rock above laccoliths completely erodes away, exposing the laccolith. This is also partially how the jagged teeth-like spires of Cerro Torre were formed.
Cerro Torre is part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield of which 40% is covered with glaciers (it is the second largest extrapolar ice field in the world). The difference between an icefield and an icecap is that an icecap completely buries the topography of the landscape while icefields partially cover the (mostly) mountainous landscape and numerous outlet glaciers move down-ward. Nowadays, Cerro Torre is surrounded by Viedma glacier, which flows into Lake Viedma.
The rugged peaks are known as some of the most dangerous to climb due to the bad weather surrounding the peaks and its steepness. Another dangerous aspect of the peaks is that they are often covered in rime ice or hard rime. These bulks of ice feathers form when supercooled water droplets strike an object (or landform) at a temperature that is below freezing. At Cerro Torre the formation of these bulks of rime ice is mostly due to the fierce winds on the summit. You can image that this brittle mushroom of ice at the summit of the steep peak make climbing it extremely difficult. And then, you also have to go down..
--BO
Image: courtesy of Piotr Angiel. The Cerro Torre Group with far left Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and right Punta Herron. A clear sky in this region is uncommon. The peaks are mostly blanketed by clouds.
References
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/photography/patagonia/cerro-torre-maestri.html
http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Rime
http://www.ladatco.com/PAT-GLAC.HTM
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/gold2001/pdf/3534.pdf
Williams, R.S. jr. 1986. Geomorphology from space. United States Geological Survey.
TES favorite - Cerro Torre
My all-time favorite mountain (although I keep looking for other ‘dramatic and unknown to me’ mountains) has to be Cerro Torre. Its location is on the Southern Patagonian Icefield which could be in either Argentina or Chile. There has been an going dispute between these countries about who the mountain belongs to. My fascination for this mountain is mostly due to its extremely rugged and spikey appearance. The steep granite pinnacles almost look like dinosaur teeth and rise 1219m from the underlying glacier.
The granite formation is not part of a long continuous mountain range but rather a small igneous intrusion. Overlying sedimentary rocks eroded exposing the granite. In addition to Cerro Torre, other peaks of the exposed granite are Torre Egger, Punta Herron and Cerro Standhardt (named after a German photographer living in Patagonia in the 1930s).
Also, the oddly shaped mountain is covered by mushrooms of air-puffed snow. Under influence of the howling Patagonian wind known as ‘the broom of god’ water drops in fog freeze and brittle ice (the texture of cotton candy) forms on the top of the spikes. Most of the time Cerro Torre is veiled in these treacherous clouds. Until the 1950s the mountain was thought to be unclimbable.
--BO
Image: Copyright Davide Brighenti. Cerro Torre in 1987.
References: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/photography/patagonia/cerro-torre-maestri.html http://www.pataclimb.com/climbingareas/chalten/torregroup/torre/SEridge.html
Mirador de los Condores Located near El Chalten in southern Patagonia, and overlooking the stunning granite peaks of the Cerro Fitzroy, Cerro Torre and their companions, this famous paragliding site offers some of the best views in a stunning region. Loz Image credit: Sergey Semenov/airpano.com
