List of highest mountains of New Guinea

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 4,884 m (16,024 ft) in 1973 when an Australian survey expedition put a beacon on the summit. This corresponded closely to the 4,866 m (15,965 ft) 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 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 1910 by Ludolph Doorman and 5,030 m (16,503 ft) 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 5,030 m (16,503 ft).^[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 (387 and 417 ft) too high. Nevertheless, the 5,030 m (16,503 ft) height is still prevalent in most atlases and maps.^[5]

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 4,520–4,550 m (14,830–14,930 ft) 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 2025^[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 (1.9 mi) to its south-west.^[10]

The list contains some unranked summits that are either of general interest, may show topographic prominences of >500 m (1,600 ft) given better data, or are more than 12 km (7.5 mi) isolated from any higher point.