| The
Paine
The Sarmientes range at 51 degrees latitude south elevates its last imposing
and important massif before dying in the southern foothills of the Andes.
This group is situated in Chilean Territory in the eastern extension of
the continental Ice south. It consists of imposing mountains of rock and
ice and includes a chain of towers known as the Paine. It is a group of
lakes often united by a labyrinth of rivers, fields of vegetation and
flowers, and ancient forests that covered the territory before the arrival
of man who burned them to make room for pasteurs, and the white glacial
tongues of the continental Ice. Above all this, they dominate the Paine
and are one of the main attractions for mountaineers of the region. Its
walls are the major focus for climbers in the area. The first news of
the exploration of this area was written in 1879 by J.T. rogers who carried
out extensive exploration of the territory of Last Hope. From there he
could see the granite towers of the Paine. It is interesting that the
official name Paine was used later. At first it was called the Untamed
Mountains. According to De Agostini the first colony established in this
region was that of don Orsimbo Santos, an enterprising and harddworking
Chilean that arrived on July 8 1908. during the first exploration campaign
he traveled with a guide thought the entire section of Last Hope by following
the course of the Serrano river that meanders through the paririe to the
fjord of Last hope. During their trip he could view the north side of
Mount Balmaceda. The objective of the 1929 expedition was to explore the
central sector of the massif. The last exploration of De Agostini was
1943 which was directed towards the northern sector along the Paine river
to the edge of Lake Dickson. With this he concluded the exploration of
virtually all of the Paine and the explorations of such grand scale to
the magnificent summits.
Paine: The Exploration of the Mountaineers
The first news of exploration of this region also came from the reports
of De Agostini. He records that in 1937 a German group of Dr. Gustavo
Fester and Hans Teufel and Stefan Zuck of the Bavarian alpine club reached
the western summit of the small Paine by traveling across the north, northeastern
crest that was named Mount admiral Nieto. But the large Paine at 3050
meters was the highest in the region and the main objective for the expedition.
In 1953-54 Argentinean climbers had already initiated their expedition.
This account was interrupted with the loss of two men: Heriberto Schmoll
and Torcek Pangerc. The Argentinean expedition financed by the Italian
group Guido Monzino soon arrived at the foot of the large Paine.
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