List of highest mountains of New Guinea

This list of highest mountains of New Guinea shows all mountains on the island of New Guinea that are at least 3750 m high and have a topographic prominence of 500 m or more. These c. 50 peaks are also the highest mountains of Australasia and the continent of Australia, where, outside New Guinea, the highest mountain is Aoraki / Mount Cook in New Zealand with a height of 3724 m.[1] A list of highest mountains of Oceania with the same limitations is almost identical, with the addition of the Hawaiian volcanoes of Mauna Kea (4205 m) and Mauna Loa (4169 m) in 18th and 20th positions. The list also shows the 36 highest thus defined mountains of Indonesia, except for the 3805 m high Gunung Kerinci on Sumatra (#29 in Indonesia), and the 16 highest mountains of Papua New Guinea.

Mount Carstensz from the east in 1972. Left to right: North Wall Peaks, Ngga Pulu, Carstensz East, and Puncak Jaya or Carstensz Pyramid. Due to glacier melt, the rocky ridge of Jaya has surpassed Ngga Pulu as the highest summit of Oceania.
Mount Wilhelm, highest peak of Papua New Guinea

Limited topographical data

Many mountains in New Guinea are poorly surveyed and some major summits remain unnamed on maps. Even well measured mountains have conflicting heights on otherwise authoritative maps. For example, the highest point in Oceania, Carstensz Pyramid, was established to be 4884 m in 1973 when an Australian survey expedition put a beacon on the summit. This corresponded closely to the 4866 m estimate by the first Lorentsz Expedition in 1910 using repeated theodolite observations from the south coast. However, over time the mountain had grown in stature: measurements from northern observation peaks for the highest summit (each time Ngga Pulu) were 5000 m in 1910 by Ludolph Doorman and 5030 m in 1926 by Charles C.F.M. Le Roux.[2] The 1936 Carstensz Expedition using barometric and boiling point measurements on the summit of Ngga Pulu also derived an elevation of 5030 m.[3] After ascending the Pyramid in 1962, Heinrich Harrer even estimated that peak to be 17,096 feet or 5211 m high.[4] The 1973 survey established that the 1936 barometric estimates were consistently between 118 and 127 m too high. Nevertheless, the 5030 m height is still prevalent in most atlases and maps.[5]

Disappearing and disappeared glaciers of the Snowy Mountains

All mountains in West Papua are in the Maoke Mountains, a translation of the name “Sneeuwgebergte” or Snowy Mountains endowed to them in 1623 by Jan Carstensz, at which time many of the peaks indeed were covered by extensive ice caps. By the beginning of the 20th century, at least five such glaciated regions remained on the highest mountains. In 1913, the 4520–4550 m high Prins Hendrik-top (now Puncak Yamin) was named and reported to have some "eternal" snow.[6] The ice cap of Wilhelmina Peaks vanished between 1939 and 1963, while the Mandala / Juliana ice cap disappeared in the 1990s.[7] The Idenburg glacier on Ngga Pilimsit dried up in 2003, leaving currently only the remnants of the glaciers on Mount Carstensz, the last of which are expected to disappear before 2050 [8] and perhaps much earlier.[9] The snow melt on the last mountain has caused a change of the highest summit of New Guinea: somewhere between 1936 and 1973 the title of highest summit of Oceania changed from Ngga Pulu, the highest point of the Northwall Firn (by then split into the West and East Northwall Firn; only small patches of the latter still exist), to the rocky spires of Carstensz Pyramid 3 km to its south-west.[10]

The list

The list contains some unranked summits that are either of general interest, may show topographic prominences of >500 m given better data, or are more than 12 km isolated from any higher point.

Rank [11] Mountain [12] Height (m) [13] Range Country (rank) Coordinates[14] Prominence (m)[15] Isolation (km) [16] First ascent [17]
1 Puncak Jaya / Carstensz Pyramid 4884 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (1) 04°04′43″S 137°09′30″E 4884 5261 13 Feb 1962
Sumantri / Ngga Pulu NW [18] 4870 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°03′43″S 137°11′06″E 350 3.5 Feb 1962
Ngga Pulu [19] 4862 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°03′59″S 137°11′16″E 100 0.6 5 Dec 1936
Carstensz East 4820 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°05′00″S 137°11′06″E 280 1.9 5 Dec 1936
2 Mandala / Juliana Pk / Abom [20] 4760 Jayawijaya / Orange [21] Indonesia (2) 04°42′31″S 140°17′22″E 2760 351.4 9 Sep 1959
3 Trikora / Wilhelmina Pk [22] 4730 Eastern Sudirman / Nassau [21] Indonesia (3) 04°15′44″S 138°40′54″E 1262 167.0 21 Feb 1913
4 Ngga Pilimsit / Idenburg Pk [23] 4717 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (4) 04°02′08″S 137°03′33″E 557 [24] 11.1 21 Feb 1962
5 Yamin / Prins Hendrik Pk 4540 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (5) 04°40′59″S 140°04′52″E 700 20.0
6 Cornelis Speelman Mts 4540 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (6) 04°34′28″S 140°08′14″E 700 18.2
7 Mt Wilhelm / Enduwa Kombuglu 4509 Bismarck Range Papua New Guinea (1) 05°46′48″S 145°01′46″E 2969 537.7 15 Aug 1938
8 J P Coen Pk [25] 4500 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (7) 04°18′16″S 139°37′53″E 820 63.5
9 Pt 4460 [26] 4460 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (8) 04°05′04″S 137°20′59″E 600 17.2
10 Valentijn Pks [25] 4453 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (9) 04°25′12″S 139°44′08″E 640 17.1
Dom / Platen Spitz 4420 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°05′29″S 137°08′02″E 460 2.1
Akimuga / Prince Willem I Pk 4390 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°06′47″S 137°27′56″E 340 12.3
11 Zaagtoppen (Saw Mtns) 4380 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (10) 04°33′01″S 139°55′06″E 680 19.1
12 Mt Giluwe 4367 New Guinea Highlands Papua New Guinea (2) 06°02′36″S 143°53′11″E 2507 129.5 16 Jun 1934
13 Willem II Pk 4360 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (11) 04°09′43″S 138°20′24″E 620 36.9
14 Ubia / Mt Leonard Darwin [27] 4340 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (12) 04°00′22″S 136°48′09″E 580 20.3
Doema ? 4340 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 03°57′53″S 136°52′42″E 340 12.2
15 Willem I Pk 4320 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (13) 04°08′26″S 138°15′44″E 660 8.9
16 Rumphius Pk 4320 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (14) 04°17′44″S 138°48′34″E 540 13.0
17 Pt 4260 4300 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (15) 04°38′10″S 140°17′27″E 540 5.4
Pt 4240 4240 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°09′29″S 138°26′50″E 400 11.6
18 Prince Willem II Pk 4220 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (16) 04°09′01″S 137°56′57″E 540 30.7
19 Pt 4180 4180 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (17) 04°00′36″S 136°51′30″E 600 5.1
20 Mt Boising / Gladstone [28] 4155 Finisterre Range Papua New Guinea (3) 05°57′14″S 146°22′31″E 3710 148.4 25 June 2014 [29]
21 Mt Sarawaget / Bangeta[30] 4121 Saruwaged Range Papua New Guinea (4) 06°18′38″S 147°05′25″E 1701 88.4 1912
22 Mt Kabangama 4104 Kubor Range Papua New Guinea (5) 06°03′38″S 144°36′56″E 2284 52.4
23 Pt 4100 [31] 4100 Maoke Range Indonesia (18) 03°57′26″S 137°44′57″E 510 25.8
24 Ngga Nggulumbulu 4061 Nggulumbulu / Hens Range Indonesia (19) 03°45′30″S 137°18′40″E 1300 32.5
Mt Kotewon ? 4060 Saruwaged Range Papua New Guinea 06°14′09″S 146°57′37″E 460 16.2
Pt 4040 4040 Saruwaged Range Papua New Guinea 06°14′13″S 146°54′26″E 460 5.9
Prins Maurits Mtns 4040 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°06′08″S 137°39′10″E 380 16.4
25 Mt Victoria 4038 Owen Stanley Range Papua New Guinea (6) 08°53′34″S 147°31′59″E 2738 287.8 11 Jun 1889
Frederik Hendrik Pk 4020 Western Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia 04°05′29″S 137°46′02″E 280 12.8
26 Johan Willem Friso Pk 4000 Eastern Sudirman/Nassau Indonesia (20) 04°10′12″S 138°01′33″E 560 2.9
27 Mt Albert Edward 3993 Owen Stanley Range Papua New Guinea (7) 08°24′44″S 147°24′12″E 980 54.8 1906
28 Antares[32] 3970 Star Mountains Indonesia (21) 04°53′46″S 140°54′15″E 1360 63.7 6 Jul 1959
29 Mt Kubor [33] 3969 Kubor Range Papua New Guinea (8) 06°06′06″S 144°45′36″E 580 16.3
30 Mt Elit 3960 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (22) 03°59′34″S 139°11′09″E 720 36.8
31 Capella 3960 Star Mountains Papua New Guinea (9) 04°59′45″S 141°04′57″E 670 22.6 Apr or May 1965
32 Pt 3960 3960 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (23) 04°19′34″S 139°26′26″E 660 12.3
33 Angemuk 3949 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (24) 03°31′30″S 138°35′31″E 1565 70.6
34 Pt 3940 3940 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (25) 03°51′12″S 137°57′52″E 800 24.4
35 Bondewit?/Yupnakabap? [34] 3920 Finisterre Range Papua New Guinea (10) 06°00′15″S 146°29′56″E 820 9.3 Jan or Feb 1965
36 Tiom Mtns HP 3915 Tiom Mountains [35] Indonesia (26) 03°46′01″S 138°16′01″E 720 34.9
37 Pt 3900 [26] 3900 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (27) 04°16′35″S 139°18′58″E 640 14.2
38 Mt Kegeraga 3885 Kubor Range Papua New Guinea (11) 06°01′48″S 144°23′23″E 720 24.6
39 Pt 3860_Finisterre 3860 Finisterre Range Papua New Guinea (12) 05°47′38″S 146°06′33″E 660 30.9
Pt 3860_Orange 3860 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia 04°09′31″S 139°13′03″E 300 14.5
40 Papua Peak 3856 3856 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (28) 03°35′10″S 138°15′35″E 1165 19.9
41 Mt Kumbepara [36] 3852 New Guinea Highlands Papua New Guinea (13) 05°30′26″S 143°02′52″E 1100 106.1
Pt 12467 3840 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia 04°42′34″S 140°28′08″E 480 11.2
42 Pt 3820 3820 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (29) 03°55′02″S 138°02′16″E 560 8.2
Mt Scratchley 3820 Owen Stanley Range Papua New Guinea 08°44′14″S 147°28′35″E 480 16.4 23 Oct 1897[37]
Pt 3820 3820 Maoke Mountains Indonesia 03°50′00″S 138°24′45″E 440 14.7
43 X-chain HP 3801 Maoke Mountains (X-chain) Indonesia (31) 03°32′32″S 137°49′42″E 1120 35.5
44 Pt 3800 3800 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (32) 03°34′39″S 138°02′46″E 600 23.4
45 Mt Kaijende [36][38] 3798 New Guinea Highlands Papua New Guinea (15) 05°28′25″S 143°11′50″E 620 15.1
46 Jumbul Ambera 3785 Maoke Mountains Indonesia (33) 03°52′03″S 139°00′13″E 1383 18.5
47 Mt Hagen [39] 3778 New Guinea Highlands Papua New Guinea (14) 05°44′38″S 144°02′34″E 1080 29.3 July 1933
48 Z-chain high-point 3774 Maoke Mountains (Z-chain) Indonesia (34) 03°37′59″S 136°55′24″E 1354 35.2
49 Mt Undan / Udon / Bedego [40] 3774 Bismarck Range Papua New Guinea (16) 05°48′02″S 144°51′12″E 800 13.2
50 Pt 3760 3760 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (35) 04°41′33″S 140°30′32″E 560 4.5
51 Kobowre HP/ Wakai [41] 3750 Kobowre / Weyland Mts Indonesia (36) 03°52′15″S 135°52′14″E 2217 88.4
52 Wachter (Guardian) [42] 3750 Jayawijaya / Orange Indonesia (37) 04°27′30″S 139°27′48″E 880 11.1

Notes and references
  1. Aoraki was 3764 m high until 14 December 1991, when a massive rock/ice collapse broke off 10 meters. Subsequent erosion of the exposed ice cap reduced its height by a further 30 m as of November 2013.
  2. Charles C.F.M. Le Roux, The Mountain Papuas of New Guinea and their environment, Volume 1, Leiden 1948, pp. 40 & 45.
  3. Colijn's map of the 1936 expedition.
  4. Heinrich Harrer's sketch map from Ich komme aus der Steinzeit. Pinguin, Innsbruck 1976, ISBN 3-524-00331-1.
  5. Edward G. Anderson, Topographic survey and cartography, in Hope, Geoff S, et al (Editors) 1976, The Equatorial Glaciers of New Guinea (Results of the 1971-1973 Australian Universities' Expeditions to Irian Jaya: survey, glaciology, meteorology, biology and palaeoenvironments), Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema. 1976, pp. 19-23.
  6. E.J. Brill, Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, 1913, p. 180.
  7. Klein, A.G., Kincaid, J.L., 2008. On the disappearance of the Puncak Mandala ice cap, Papua. Journal of Glaciology 54, 195–198.
  8. Klein, A.G. and J.L. Kincaid. 2006. Retreat of glaciers on Puncak Jaya, Irian Jaya, determined from 2000 and 2002 IKONOS satellite images. J. Glaciol., 52(176), 65–79.
  9. McDowell, Robin (July 1, 2010). "Indonesia's Last Glacier Will Melt 'Within Years'". Jakarta Globe. Archived from the original on August 16, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  10. Anderson, p. 22, and Jean Jacques Dozy, Vom höchsten Gipfel bis in die tiefste Grube. Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, Bull. angew. Geol. 7:S.67-80. 2002.
  11. Only mountains with a prominence of 500 m or more are ranked.
  12. Many names are from the 1942 and 1966 American army maps and can be outdated .
  13. Most "round" heights are crude estimates from contour lines on Google terrain maps. Based on the average of carefully measured summit heights in the region, peaks are here presented to be 40 m higher than the highest encircling contour line.
  14. Extracted from the Google terrain maps.
  15. The prominence data were extracted from a combination of maps and Google terrain data. Values for mountains with prominences over 1,500 m were copied from the peaklist.org ultras website.
  16. The nearest higher elevation to Puncak Jaya is on the slopes of Yulong Xueshan in China.
  17. First documented ascent by Europeans.
  18. Measured in 1975 at 4855 m (Anderson, p. 21), but its exposed spire is now also higher than the neighboring, melting Ngga Pulu
  19. In 1936, the snow dome of Ngga Pulu seems to have been ca. 4900 m high and with that the highest summit in the Netherlands Indies and Oceania (Anderson p. 22). For this reason it became in 1963 the original bearer of the name Puntjak Sukarno and then Puntjak Djaja. However, snowmelt had lowered it to 4862 m by 1973 (Anderson, p. 22).
  20. An alternative height of 4640 m is inconsistent with 4720 m SRTM-contour lines around the summit.
  21. On some maps and in some sources the Jayawijaya / Orange range represents the eastern half of the Nassau range (from the 3475 m Jila Pass at 4°5′36″S 137°40′16″E to the Baliem gorge). The original Orange range is then often considered part of the Star mountains, the eastern section of the Jayawijaya range, or has the name Wisnumurti Range.
  22. Highest SRTM-contour lines are 4680 m.
  23. Probable location; alternatively the highest of the three Idenburg Peaks, climbed by Harrer and company in 1962, is 1.8 km to the ESE at 04°2′42″S 137°4′21″E.
  24. According to "Ngga Pilimsit, Indonesia". Peakbagger.com., which site uses the published height of Ngga Pilimsit and a maximum 4160 m for the key col from Google terrain. The latter's SRTM data shows a maximum of 4640 for the peak though and may be particularly off for the region.
  25. The names of the Valentijn and Jan Pietersz Coen mountains are switched on different maps, sometimes JPC, sometimes Valentijn being northwest and having the highest summit of ca. 4500 m.
  26. One of multiple summits on a ridge with the same highest contour lines.
  27. A mountain originally named after the son of Charles Darwin. The height of Mt Ubia is usually given as 4234 m. This probably was the 1910 theodolite measurement from the south coast of the top of the spectacular, 1500m-high south wall. The true summit 2 km NE would have been out of view.
  28. The first recorded ascendants reported that the local, (Nankina) name consistently is Boising, meaning "Stop the fight". Their GPS measurements on the top were 3751 and 4155 m, while its height is indicated as 4175 m on the 1:100,000 ‘Saidor’ topographic sheet, based on 1973-74 aerial photography. This summit is unnamed on most maps, but is possibly the same as Mount Gladstone, a name bestowed by Hugo Zöller to the highest summit in this range during his expedition through the Finisterre range in 1888. It appeared with this name and a height of just 11,400 feet (c. 3475 m) on the 1942 American Army Map.
  29. Mount Boising first ascent report.
  30. Also Mt Salawaket or Mt Saruwaged and Sturmkoppe. Mt Bangeta may alternatively refer to a 4060 m subsidiary peak at 6°16′42″S 147°03′12″E.
  31. Sometimes reported with an SRTM-data incompatible 4350 m height.
  32. The height of Antares, always considered the highest mountain of the Sterrengebergte (Star mountains), has been all over the map. The first ascendants underestimated it by some 300 m to be 3650 m while the height of 4170 m on many maps appears 200 m too high. The highest (very narrow) SRTM-contours around the summit are 3940 m.
  33. The commonly reported height of 4,360 m appears 400 m off target.
  34. Bondewit and Kawam are local, Nankina names for mountains roughly corresponding to the location of this mountain and ca 3950 m mountain in between it and Mt Boising.
  35. Name (after the Tiom pass to the south) and height from J. Ehlers, P.L. Gibbard, P.D. Hughes, Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology: A Closer Look, Elsevier Publishers, Amsterdam 2011, pp. 1026-1031.
  36. Map in RAP Expedition Kaijende Highlands 2005 report Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  37. MacGregor, William 1899. ‘Despatch reporting visit inland to the western end of the Owen Stanley Range, and thence across the island to the north-east coast.’ Annual Report of British New Guinea 1897-98. Appendix B. Melbourne, Victoria: Government Printer
  38. Other sources (e.g. Paul W Williams, Arête and Pinnacle Karst of Mount Kaijende, 2009) seem to indicate that the name "Mount Kaijende" belongs to the ca. 3500 m high mountain 10 km to the east at 05°29′40″S 143°17′28″E.
  39. Many sources give a height of 3834 m for Mt Hagen, but SRTM data show multiple regions on the crater rim with contour lines of 3780 m.
  40. The 3774 m height is reported for Mount Bedego, which could match the 3700 m contour lines at this location, which more often bears the name Mount Undan or Mount Udon.
  41. The highest point of the Weyland mountains for many years was held to be 3891 m, but this is not borne out by maximum SRTM-contours of 3720 m.
  42. A pointy peak which may well be over 3750 m high despite SRTM-contours of only 3700 m.
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