From Freepedia
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Coordinates:
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19°02′ N 70°59′ W
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First ascent:
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1851 by Robert H. Schomburgk
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route:
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hike (?)
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Pico Duarte, is the highest peak in all the
Caribbean islands. It lies in the
Cordillera Central range, the greatest of the
Dominican Republic's mountain chains. The Cordillera Central extends from the plains between
San Cristóbal and
Baní to the northwestern peninsula of
Haiti, where it is known as
Massif du Nord. The highest elevations of the Cordillera Central are found in the Pico Duarte and Valle Nuevo massifs.
The Pico Duarte was allegedly climbed for the first time in
1851 by the
British consul to the country, Sir
Robert H. Schomburgk. He named the mountain Monte Tina and estimated its height at 3,140 m. In 1912, Father Miguel Fuertes dismissed Schomburgk's calculations after climbing La Rusilla and considering that it was the tallest summit of the island. A year later, the
Swedish botanist Erik L. Ekman sided with the Englishman's estimate, thinking it was closer to the truth, and called the sister summits as Pelona Grande and Pelona Chica (Big and Small Pelona). During the
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina regime, the tallest of these was called Pico Trujillo, only to be renamed later, after the dictator's death, with its current name of Pico Duarte, in honor of
Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the Dominican Republic's founding fathers.
As explained, the mountain's elevation has been for quite some time a matter of debate. As recently as mid-1990's, it was said to be 3,175 meters high. But recently, using a
GPS altimeter, it was established that it only has 3,087 meters. It is only two meters taller than La Pelona, its twin sister peak.
The mountain and the surrounding landscape is covered in
Hispaniolan Pine (
Pinus occidentalis) forests and has a climate that is not typical of a Caribbean island, with cool temperatures all year round, going below freezing during winter nights.
