{"id":3898,"date":"2020-08-21T18:46:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T17:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colinmunrophotography.com\/blog\/?p=3898"},"modified":"2020-12-04T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T16:08:00","slug":"cuernos-del-paine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colinmunrophotography.com\/blog\/cuernos-del-paine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuernos del Paine, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cordillera Paine is a cluster of mountain ranges on the edge of the South Patagonia Ice Cap. A small extension of the Andes way down in the far south of Chile. Bounded to the west by Grey glacier, Lago (lake) Nordenskjol to the south and Lagos Dickenson and Paine to the north, the cordillera lies almost completely with the Torres del Paine National Park, 1,800 square kilometres of breathtaking wilderness. The centrepeice of the park are three immense granite towers that dominate the landscape, Los Cuernos del Paine. The name literally translates as the blue horns: cuernos the Spanish for horns and Paine (pronounced pie-nay<\/em>) meaning blue in the language of the indigenous Tehuelche peoples. The Tehuelche<\/a> (also known as A\u00f3nikenk) is a collective name for the indigenous peoples inhabiting Patagonia<\/a> prior to the arrival of the Spanish. The few remaining are now mostly found close to the southern Argentina-Chile borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cuernos
Cuernos del Paine, Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia. The first of my art prints for sale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The three towers, torre sud, torres central and torre norte, have drawn many climbers over the years. In the austral summer of 1962-63, an Italian team and a British raced to be the first to climb the central tower. The seven man British team, lead by Barry Paige, had already been climbing there for several weeks when the Italian team arrived . The Italian team included the great alpinist Armando Aste<\/a>, while while the British team was a mix of experience and then rising stars. A race to reach the top first ensued; a race won by the brits, in part through Don Whillans idea to erect a temporary hut high on the mountain, sheltering them from the ferocious wind. The tower was first summited by Chris Bonington<\/a> and Don Whillans<\/a>, then both still in their 20s, and famously barely on speaking terms at the beginning of the climb, after a fall-out on an earlier expedition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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