Puncak Jaya
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Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain in Oceania. (Puncak, pronounced pun-chak, means peak or mountain and Jaya, pronounced to rhyme with "eye", means biggest or highest.) Its traditional name among mountaineers is Carstensz Pyramid, after Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz who first reported it to Europeans. It is located in what is variously called the Sudirman Range or the Dugunduguoo, in the western central highlands of Papua, the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island of New Guinea.
The peak was formerly known as Puntjak Soekarno (Simplified Indonesian: Puncak Sukarno) or Peak of Sukarno, after the first President of Indonesia. It is the second highest mountain in Southeast Asia, behind Hkakabo Razi in Myanmar, and the highest island peak in the world.
Carstensz Pyramid is on the more demanding of the two principal Seven Summits peak-bagging lists. It is held to have the highest technical rating, though not the greatest physical demands, of that list's ascents. Although the snowfield of Puncak Jaya was reached as early as 1909 by a Dutch explorer, Hendrik A. Lorentz, the peak was not climbed until 1962, by an expedition led by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer with three friends - Temple, Kippax and Huizenga.
During the 1990s, separatist guerrilla violence erupted in the province between local groups and the Indonesian military. Due to the deteriorating political situation, the Indonesian government closed off the mountain to public access in November 1995. Access now requires a government permit, which always requires a lengthy wait and will be denied if political conditions are not conducive to having foreigners in the jungle.
External links
- Puncak Jaya on Peakware (http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/puncakjaya.htm)de:Carstensz-Pyramide