Puncak Jaya

Name: Puncak Jaya
Address: Indonesia

Summit · Papua · 4,760 m

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Puncak Jaya
Photo: Alfindra Primaldhi, commons.wikimedia.org (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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The 4884 m high Puncak Jaya is situated in West Papua, the western part of the island of New Guinea which belongs to Indonesia.

It is not clearly stated that the 4884 m high Carstenz pyramid belongs to the "Seven Summits". From a political point of view, the mountain belongs to Indonesia and thus to Asia. However, the pyramid is located on the Australian continental mass. In geological terms, the Carstensz pyramid is the highest mountain in Oceania.

Patron of the "Pyramid" is the Dutch navigator Jan Carstensz, who was assigned in 1623 by the Dutch East India Company to lead an expedition to the coast of New Guinea. He saw the massive, jagged rock with its glacier fields and of course reported extensively in his homeland.

The first to finally reach the summit on February 13, 1962 was the Austrian Heinrich Harrer with his team (Philip Temple, Russel Kippax and Albert Huizenga) and the help of over 100 porters. They climbed over the north face, since then the route is considered the "way of the first climbers" (III-IV, most difficult point V).

The Puncak Jaya is among the Seven Summits one of the the most difficult to be climbed. Additionally, climbing it is not easy in bureaucratic terms. Lucrative mining companies in the area do not like foreign visitors.