In 2017, three Belgian climbers, Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, made the first free ascent up the rock face, which is about 1,200 m (3,900 ft).

[1] 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.

[8] 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.

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.

[11] The Torres del Paine National Park—an area of 2,400 km2 (930 sq mi)—was declared a Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO in 1978 and receives about 250,000 visitors annually.