Description:
The highest peak between the Andes and the Himalaya is Puncak Jaya, rising to over 5000 meters on the tropical island of New Guinea. It is also the highest mountain on an island on the planet, and perhaps the strongest candidate for highest point of the Australia/Oceania continent.
Europeans have long called this peak the Carstenz Pyramid, or Mount Carstenz, after the Dutch navigator who first sighted it on a rare clear day. The Netherlands held on to western New Guinea longer than the rest of Indonesia, turning the area over in 1960. The Indonesians renamed the peak Puncak Jaya, or "Mount Victory", once they gained control of what they call Irian Jaya.
Jaya is high and wet enough to support some small glaciers, only 4 degrees from the equator. Surrounded by unexplored rainforest, the area is difficult to reach for the casual tourist. Recent guerilla activity by the OPM rebel group, seeking Irian Jaya's independence from Indonesia, has made the situation more difficult. There is a large copper mine near the mountain at Tembagapura, owned by a U.S. corporation, that has become a flashpoint in the struggle, with the natives maintaining that the mine is polluting and imperialist.
Still, as one of the dominant peaks of the world and generally considered as one of the "Seven Summits", Jaya is still climbed every year by intrepid westerners, mostly on pre-arranged adventure-travel tours. The rich culture of the isolated tribes of the central New Guinea highlands is an added attraction to any journey into the area. |