The highest summit of the range is Cerro Paine Grande. For a long time its elevation was claimed to be 3,050 m or 3,251 m, but in August 2011 it was ascended for the third time, measured using GPS and found to be 2,884 m. The three Towers of Paine form the centrepiece of Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The South Tower of Paine was first climbed in 1963 by Chris Bonington and Don Whillans. In 2017, three Belgian climbers, Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, made the first free ascent up the rock face. The North Tower was first climbed by Guido Monzino. Other summits include the Cuerno Principal, about 2,100 m in elevation, and Cerro Paine Chico, which is usually quoted at about 2,650 m.
Geology
The range is made up of a yellowish granite underlain by grey gabbro-diorite laccolith and the sedimentary rocks it intrudes, deeply eroded by glaciers. 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. The radiometric age for the quartz diorite at Cerro Paine is 12 ± 2 million years by the rubidium-strontium method and 13 ± 1 million years by the potassium-argon method. 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. Basal gabbro and diorite were dated by a similar technique to 12.472 ± 0.009 to 12.431 ± 0.006 million years. Thus, magma was intruded and crystallized over 162 ± 11 thousand years. High resolution dating and excellent 3-D exposure of the laccolith and its vertical feeding system allow detailed reconstruction of the Torres del Paine fossil magma chamber history.
Hiking
The Torres del Paine National Park—an area of 2,400 km²—was declared a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 1978 and receives about 250,000 visitors annually. Trails and some campsites are maintained by Chile's National Forest Corporation, and mountain huts provide shelter and basic services.
