Puncak Jaya dominates the landscape of the island nation of New Guinea. It is the hightest of the peaks in the Sudirman Range. Although it is the highest mountain in Indonesia, as well as the highest island mountain in the world, it is the smallest of the Seven Summits. A mere four degrees in latitude from the world’s equator, it stands at 16,024 feet of elevation from base to summit. Despite the fact that it is very close to the equator, snow and ice still adorn the sides of Puncak Jaya.
In fact, while the peak is free of ice, there are glaciers spread across its slopes. Carstensz Glacier and the Northwall Firn are the two largest and best-known. Being equatorial, the air temperature on the mountain rarely varies. On average, the temperature hovers between 32 and 33 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather at the base of Puncak Jaya, however, is a different story. New Guinea is a tropical island, covered mostly by lush rainforests. The highlands below the mountain experience daytime temperatures ranging between 75 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping to 45 degrees at night. The mornings are generally filled with sunshine, but climbers have near-daily experiences with afternoon rain showers. Farther up, because of the colder average temperatures, the rain turns into snow. Because the weather does not change seasonally, Puncak Jaya can be climbed at any time of the year.
Originally called Carstensz Pyramid, Puncak Jaya was first sighted and recorded on a map by Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz in 1623. On a rare clear day, Carstensz spotted snow on the peak of the mountain. The sighting went unverified for another two centuries, during which time Carstensz was ridiculed throughout Europe for believing there to be snow so near the equator.
The name Carstensz Pyramid is still used among many mountain climbers, but in the 1960s, when Indonesia took back control of the province from the Netherlands, the name was officially changed to an Indonesian appellation that means “Victory Mountain” (commemorating the emancipation of New Guinea from the Dutch colonial empire in 1963). The Dutch had controlled New Guinea since the mid-1800s as part of the Netherland Spice Island Empire. The Netherlands had intended to release control over New Guinea in the 1970s, but during the late 1950s the people of Indonesia began to exert additional pressure on the Dutch to expedite their emancipation. As a result, and with the help of the United Nations, Indonesia was able to accomplish this sooner.
At the time of emancipation, New Guinea first renamed the mountain to Puncak Soekarno or Puncak Sukarno, after the nation’s first president. Later, the name was changed yet again to Puncak Jaya.
Puncak Jaya is known to be one of the more demanding of the Seven Summits climbs. It has the highest technical rating, and climbers should possess rock climbing skills. In order to summit Puncak Jaya, climbers must conquer the ‘wall’. The wall of Puncak Jaya begins at a bowed angle of 10 to 15 degrees, but closer to the top it becomes almost perfectly vertical. Many climbers compare ‘the wall’ to jagged glass.
Aside from challenges to skill, the mountain provides many other obstacles for aspiring climbers. Because it lies within a dense tropical forest, climbers are not able to reach the base of the mountain by road or by air. They must spend five to six days making the 100-kilometer trek through the rainforest to reach the base of the mountain.
The surrounding forest is also inhabited by indigenous and primitive (and sometimes intrusive) tribes. The Dani tribe populates the Baliem Valley, which is at the base of Puncak Jaya. Not having been visited by non-indigenous people until the late 1930s, the Dani tribe has held onto many of its tribal traditions. The men wear distinctive gourds over their genitals, and the women wear grass skirts. Pigs and women are the most valued possessions to the men of the Dani tribe, and agriculture is centralized around sweet potatoes. Danis are the most colorful of New Guineas tribes in terms of their dress and appearance, and they are particularly fond of “dressing up” for war. Tribesmen will adorn their heads with headdresses of feathers and their noses with boar’s tusks. Dani women are known for lacking fingers because when a family member in a Dani tribe passes away, all women relatives are expected to remove a portion of a finger.
The rain forests of New Guinea surrounding Puncak Jaya is known for its animal inhabitants. Both tree pythons and death adders live in the area. New Guinea’s largest bird, the flightless cassowary, is large enough to disembowel a human with its sharp claws. Sticky webs also give homes to bird-eating spiders.
The snowfield of Puncak Jaya was first reached in 1909 by a Dutch explorer, Hendrik Albert Lorentz. His team consisted of six indigenous Dayak Kenyah porters from Apo Kayan in Borneo. Lorentz was a part of three expeditions to New Guinea; in the last, he reached the snowfield on Puncak Jaya. The Lorentz National Park and Lorentz River in New Guinea are named after him.
It wasn’t until 53 years later that the peak was reached. Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer summited Puncak Jaya in 1962. He summited with three other expedition members, Philip Temple, Russell Kippax and Bert Huizenga. Temple, from New Zealand, had recently led an expedition into the area and had pioneered the access route to Puncak Jaya.
Throughout his life, Heinrich Harrer traveled to many parts of the world, including much of Western Europe, India, Tibet, New Guinea, Alaska, and Africa. After his travels through New Guinea, Harrer penned I Come From the Stone Age. This memoir elaborated on the time he spent in New Guinea and summiting Puncak Jaya. Harrer wrote: “On Aigera I wanted to test my skills, in Himalayas I got to know loneliness, in Tibet unusual people. On the New Guinea Island I found everything altogether.” In his lifetime, Harrer wrote over 20 books detailing his travels. I Come From the Stone Age and Seven Years in Tibet are his two most famous. Seven Years in Tibet is devoted to his time in Tibet and his experiences tutoring the 14th Dalai Lama. It was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt. Heinrich Harrer passed away on January 7, 2006, at the age of 93, in Austria.
Other noted climbers of Puncak Jaya include Ripto Mulyono and Frenky Kowass. Mulyono is a member of the Indonesian national climbing team. In 2005, he reached that peak for a record-setting 20th time. Mulyono also gave climbing lessons to Kowass, who was the climber who installed the first fixed rope system on the Normal Route up Puncak Jaya.