Puncak Jaya - Climbing History

Climbing History

In 1936 the Dutch Carstensz Expedition, unable to establish definitely which of the three summits was the highest, attempted to climb each. Anton Colijn, Jean Jacques Dozy and Frits Wissel reached both the glacier covered East Carstensz and Ngga Pulu summits on December 5, but through bad weather failed in their attempts to climb the bare Carstensz Pyramid. Because of extensive snow melt Ngga Pulu has become a 4,862 m subsidiary peak, but it has been estimated that in 1936 (when glaciers still covered 13 square km of the mountain; see map) Ngga Pulu was indeed the highest summit, reaching over 4,900 m.

The now highest Carstensz Pyramid summit was not climbed until 1962, by an expedition led by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer (of Seven Years in Tibet fame, and climber of the Eiger North Face) with three other expedition members – Philip Temple, Russell Kippax and Albertus Huizenga. Temple, from New Zealand, had previously led an expedition into the area and pioneered the access route to the mountains.

When Indonesia took control of the province in 1963, the peak was renamed 'Puntjak Soekarno' (Simplified Indonesian: Puncak Sukarno) or Sukarno Peak, after the first President of Indonesia; later this was changed to Puncak Jaya. Puncak means peak or mountain and Jaya means 'victory', 'victorious' or 'glorious'.