Cerro Trono Blanco

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Cerro Trono Blanco
Cerro Trono Blanco and Cerro Aleta de Tiburon.jpg
South aspect
Aleta de Tiburón (Shark Fin) in front
Highest point
Elevation 2,197 m (7,208 ft) [1] [2] [3]
Prominence 586 m (1,923 ft) [1]
Isolation 2.736 km (1.700 mi) [1]
Coordinates 50°57′05″S73°05′08″W / 50.951434°S 73.085515°W / -50.951434; -73.085515 [1]
Naming
Etymology White Throne
Geography
Relief Map of Chile.jpg
Red triangle with thick white border.svg
Cerro Trono Blanco
Location in Chile
South America laea relief location map.jpg
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Cerro Trono Blanco
Cerro Trono Blanco (South America)
Tierra del Fuego location map.svg
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Cerro Trono Blanco
Cerro Trono Blanco (Southern Patagonia)
Cerro Trono Blanco
Interactive map of Cerro Trono Blanco
Country Chile
Province Última Esperanza Province
Protected area Torres del Paine National Park
Parent range Andes
Cordillera Paine
Topo map IGM Paine (Hoja Paine)
Geology
Rock age Miocene
Rock type(s) Granite, Schist
Climbing
First ascent 1968

Cerro Trono Blanco is a mountain in the Magallanes Region of Chile.

Contents

Description

Cerro Trono Blanco is a 2,197-meter-elevation (7,208-foot) summit in the Cordillera Paine group of the Andes. The peak is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) north-northwest of Puerto Natales. The peak is situated at the head of Valle del Francés (French Valley) within Torres del Paine National Park. Precipitation runoff from the peak's slopes drains north to Dickson Lake and south to Nordenskjöld Lake which are both part of the Paine River watershed. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,260 meters (4,134 feet) above French Valley in 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mile), and 1,650 meters (5,413 feet) above Laguna Los Perros (Dogs Lake) in three kilometers (1.86 miles). The peak's descriptive Spanish toponym translates as "White Throne." The nearest higher peak is Cerro Cabeza de Indio, 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) to the east. [1]

Climbing history

The first ascent of the summit was accomplished in 1968 by Czechoslovakian mountaineers Leos Horka and Pavel K'imza along with Chilean Gastón Oyarzún, [4] then the second ascent was made in 1979 by C. Gálvez, G. Casassa, and J. Lanas. [5] In February 2007, Julien Dussere, Jehan-Roland Guillot, Rémi Vignon, and Frederic Salle established a new route on the south face that they named Hoja de Rosa. [6] On December 6, 2024, Sebastian Pelletti and Hernan Rodriguez made the first ascent of Ultima Ronda on the south face. [7]

Cerro Aleta de Tiburón

The south ridge of Trono Blanco features a distinctive granite arête called Aleta de Tiburón which translates as Shark Fin. The elevation is 1,717 meters (5,633 ft). [8] It was first climbed in January 1978 by Gino Cassasa, Claude Cognian, Juan Pardo, and Gonzalo Salamanca. The south ridge was first climbed by Gibert Bonneville, Miguel Ignat, and Denis Ravaine in January 1982. [8] The southwest face was first climbed by Norm Larson, Patrick Lind, Magnus Nilson, and Lorna Corson in February 1992. The northwest face was first climbed by Charlie Fowler, Peter Appel, and Sarah Wood in January 1995. [8]

Climate

Based on the Köppen climate classification, Cerro Trono Blanco is located in a tundra climate zone with long, cold winters, and short, cool summers. [9] Weather systems are forced upward by the mountains (orographic lift), causing moisture to drop in the form of rain and snow. This climate supports small unnamed glaciers on the north and south slopes. The months of December through February offer the most favorable weather for visiting or climbing in this area, [10] however the region is characterized by low temperatures and strong winds throughout the year. [11]

Geology

The peak is composed of granite underlain by gray gabbro-diorite laccolith and the sedimentary rocks it intrudes, deeply eroded by glaciers. The hot granite that intruded parallel to the sedimentary rock converted the mudstone and sandstone into a dark metamorphic rock. The steep, light colored faces are eroded from the tougher, vertically jointed granitic rocks, while the foothills and dark cap rocks are the sedimentary country rock, in this case flysch deposited in the Cretaceous and later folded. [12]

The radiometric age for the quartz diorite is 12 ± 2 million years by the rubidium-strontium method and 13 ± 1 million years by the potassium-argon method. [13] More precise ages of 12.59 ± 0.02 and 12.50 ± 0.02 million years for the earliest and latest identified phases of the intrusion, respectively, were achieved using Uranium–lead dating methods on single zircon crystals. [14] Basal gabbro and diorite were dated by a similar technique to 12.472 ± 0.009 to 12.431 ± 0.006 million years. [15] Thus, magma was intruded and crystallized over 162 ± 11 thousand years.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cerro Trono Blanco". peakvisor.com. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  2. ↑ The peaks of the Patagonian Andes, Andes.org.uk, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Cerro Trono Blanco". Peakery.com. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  4. ↑ Tout savoir sur le parc le plus connu du Chili: Torres del Paine, Tourisme-chili.com, Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  5. ↑ The American Alpine Journal, 1979, ISSN 0065-6925, p. 256.
  6. ↑ South America, Chile, Southern Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park, Trono Blanco, Hoja de Rosa; Cuerno Norte, Dentelle de Roche; Cerro Catedral, Escoba de Dios, Second Ascent, Frederic Salle, 2007, publications.americanalpineclub.org, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  7. ↑ 'Ultima Ronda' climbed on Cerro Trono Blanco (Torres del Paine, Patagonia) by Sebastian Pelletti, Hernan Rodriguez, Planetmountain.com, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Cerro Aleta de Tiburón (1717 m.), Andeshandbook.org, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  9. ↑ Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification" (PDF). Hydrology and Earth System Sciences . 11 (5): 1633–1644. Bibcode:2007HESS...11.1633P. doi: 10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007 . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  10. ↑ Best Time to Visit Torres Del Paine - Ideal Seasons and Months of the Year, Adventuretripr.com, Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Clima y vegetación Región de Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena" (in Spanish). Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Altenberger, Uwe; Oberhänsli, Roland; Putlitz, Benita; Wemmer, Klaus (1 July 2003). "Tectonic controls and Cenozoic magmatism at the Torres del Paine, southern Andes (Chile,51°10'S)". Revista Geológica de Chile. 30 (1): 65–81. doi: 10.4067/S0716-02082003000100005 .
  13. ↑ Martin Halpern "Regional Geochronology of Chile South of 50 degrees Latitude", Bulletin Geological Society of America, v. 84, p. 2410, 1973.
  14. ↑ Juergen Michel, Lukas Baumgartner, Benita Putlitz, Urs Schaltegger and Maria Ovtcharova, Incremental growth of the Patagonian Torres del Paine Laccolith over 90 k.y., Geology, 36(6):459–462, 2008.
  15. ↑ Leuthold, Julien; Müntener, Othmar; Baumgartner, Lukas; Putlitz, Benita; Ovtcharova, Maria; Schaltegger, Urs (2012). "Time resolved construction of a bimodal laccolith (Torres del Paine, Patagonia)". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 325–326: 85–92. Bibcode:2012E&PSL.325...85L. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2012.01.032.
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