Monte Sarmiento is a pyramidal peak with a glaciated saddle-shaped summit located within Alberto de Agostini National Park

Alberto de Agostini National Park

Alberto de Agostini National Park is a park located in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. It covers and includes the Cordillera Darwin mountain range. The park is named after Alberto Maria De Agostini, who was an Italian missionary and explorer. Several tidewater glaciers and steep fjords form...

, in the Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an portion of Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

. It rises abruptly from the east shore of the Magdalena Channel

Magdalena Channel

Magdalena Channel is a Chilean channel joining the Strait of Magellan with Cockburn Channel and is part of a major navigation route which ultimately connects with the Beagle Channel. It separates Capitán Aracena Island from the westernmost portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, and crosses...

 and marks the western border of the Cordillera Darwin

Cordillera Darwin

The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive mountain range mantled by an ice field. It is located in the southwestern portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, entirely within the Chilean territory. It is part of the longest Andes range and includes the highest mountains in Tierra del Fuego, with...

. The mountain is frequently shrouded in clouds, but when it is visible is "the most sublime spectacle in Tierra del Fuego" according to the words of
Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

, one of the many people who have been captivated by the breathtaking beauty of this mountain.

History

The mountain was called "Volcán Nevado" (Snowy Volcano) by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied...

, who thought it was a volcano. Phillip Parker King named it Mount Sarmiento in honor of the mentioned explorer.

Several unsuccessful attempts were made to reach its summit, including those of
Martin Conway in 1898 and of Alberto María de Agostini

Alberto María de Agostini

Father Alberto Maria De Agostini born in Pollone, Piedmont was an Italian missionary of the Salesians of Don Bosco order as well as a passionate mountaineer, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, photographer and cinematographer.-Life:De Agostini lived as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego and...

 in 1913.

Monte Sarmiento was climbed on 07 March 1956 (East Summit) by an expedition including the Italian mountaineers Clemente Gueret and Carlo Mauri and organized by Padre Alberto Maria De Agostini (http://www.pinzolodolomiti.it/sarmiento.html).
The West Summit was climbed on 24 December 1986 by an Italian expedition of Ragni di Lecco including Gigi Alippi, Salvatore Panzeri, Lorenzo Mazzoleni, Pinuccio Castelnuovo, Bruno Pennati, Clemente Maffei, Gian Maria Confalonieri, Franco Baravalle, Salvatore Fantozzi e Luciano Bovina (http://www.planetmountain.com/News/shownews1.lasso?l=1&keyid=37420). This expedition opened a new route on the North Face.
The west summit of Monte Sarmiento was climbed in 1995 by a party including the British mountaineers Stephen Venables

Stephen Venables

Stephen Venables is a British mountaineer and writer, and is a past president of the South Georgia Association and of the Alpine Club.-Mountaineer:...

, John Roskelley and Tim Macartney-Snape. (Source: Ollie, by Stephen Venables).
A Deutsch Team composed by Robert Jasper, Jörn Heller and Ralf Gantzhorn climbed the North Face on 04 April 2010, arriving on the West Summit and following the route opened in 1986.

In literature

The mountain is mentioned in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...

by Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

.

In cinema

An attempt to climb the mountain in 2003 is the subject of the Brazilian documentary film Extremo sul.