Cerro Eléctrico.


Description.

This peak, located to the north east of the Chaltén massif, offers some great views of the Fitz Roy group.

It has three clearly different summits: one located close to Paso Guillaumet which is a black rock formation, Castillo Negro, one to the east which is glaciated, the main summit, and one to the northeast which is red colored (unclimbed?).

The Italian priest and geographer Alberto Maria De Agostini, who visited, mapped and climbed in the area in the 1930s, gave the name. Agostini’s extensive photographic coverage brought this region to the attention of many of the European climbers, particularly the Italians. There are three different theories regarding the name of this peak and the nearby river. The first refers to the different colors of two of its summits, one red, one black, symbolizing a negative and a positive pole; the second refers to the fact that the river flows from the Marconi range, which was named after Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) an Italian electrical engineer who was partly responsible for the development of wireless telegraphy; the last explanation for the name is that locals conveyed to Alberto Maria De Agostini that name because of the windy and stormy in the area.

The northern most summit of the peak, above Paso Guillaumet, was named Cerro Electrico Oeste by Louis Lliboutry, the cartographer, geologist and glaciologist that was part of the French expedition that accomplished the first ascent of Cerro Fitz Roy in 1952, which also gave it an alternate name "Chateau Noir" - Castillo Negro. Since the name Cerro Electrico Oeste has been "misplaced" in all maps to the peak located immediately north of paso Cuadrado seems best to stick with the alternate name given by Lliboutry to avoid confusion. The "red summit" was named by Lliboutry Cerro Electrico Noreste.

Climbing history.

The Italian priest and geographer Alberto Maria De Agostini first climbed the main summit of Cerro Electrico in 1932, with the guide Mario Derriard.

The east face was skied by Max O’Dell (Argentina) in 1998, (45˚).

Argentine Carlos Comesaña soloed the first ascent of Castillo Negro in January of 1964. Martin Donovan, Avo Nacachian y Jorge Ruiz Luque repeated the ascent a year later, in January of 1965. In 2000, Frenchwoman Laurence Monnoyeur climbed it from the north, spiraling around its west and south faces to finally gain the summit from the east (380m, 4+).

Bibliography.
De Agostini A. M. (1949) Ande Patagoniche, Società Cartografica Giovanni De Agostini, Milano; Alpinisti Italiani nell Mondo, Commissione Centrale delle Pubblicazioni, Club Alpino Italiano, 1953 p. 309-310; Lliboutry L. (1952) Estudio Cartografico, Geologico y Glaciologico de la Zona del Fitz Roy, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Cerro Electrico