A point that emerges to the east of the Gías peak is the new summit that exceeds 3,000 meters of the Pyrenees. The five surveying engineers that make up Sostremetries, Oriol Boixareu, Marc Calaff, Salvador Sala, David Segura and Andreu Alvarruiz, have analyzed this summer with the latest technology eight peaks on the edge of this altitude, of which only the one they have named Gías Inferior , in Aragón, meets all the requirements to be part of the three thousand list. On the other hand, two of the 217 that appear so far in this inventory will leave, the Clarabide Occidental and the Pico Pequeno del Portillón, and five do not enter, the Punta de Passet, the Salenques, the Frondella SW, the Piedras Albas and the Cregüeña . They are all in Aragón except Punta Passet, located in the Vall de Boí.
To determine if a peak in the Pyrenees can be considered a 3,000, it is not enough that it exceeds this level, it must also have a prominence, that is, a difference in level of at least ten meters between the access hill and the summit, a criterion set by Juan Buyse in his work Los tresmiles del Pirineo, from 1990. Sostremetries and the group of Ghostbusters, the authors of the catalog of tresmiles that many mountaineers take as a reference, accept this condition that at the time was also accepted by the International Union of Mountaineering Associations ( UIAA).
Sostremetries has used state-of-the-art topographic and geodetic measurement equipment to resolve doubts about mountain elevations that touch the 3,000 barrier and that until now had not been investigated in the field or with such precision, Alvarruiz highlights. The investigations that began in June and ended on September 22 will mean the modification of the popular Ghostbusters list. With these latest findings, the Pyrenees have gained three thousand, the Gías Inferior, and have lost two, the aforementioned Pequeno del Portillón, of 2,998.66 meters, and the Clarabide Occidental, which although it guarantees 3,007.44 does not meet the condition of the prominence. In this case, the difference in level between the hill and the summit is 9.11 meters compared to the ten required, as confirmed by Sostremetries.
With these new features, the current inventory of 217 peaks would remain at 216. Patxi Termenón, one of the promoters of the Ghostbusters, indicates that there would be another 16 peaks candidates to join this classification.
In addition to providing more topographical precision on the Pyrenees mountains, this information will be useful for three-thousand hunters, people who want to complete all or most of them.
Sostremetries emphasizes that its objective is to disseminate the applications of topography and vindicate the importance of this profession. It is worth remembering the impact that the confirmation of a new three thousand, the Arnales, of 3,001.37 meters, had last year.
The most relevant expeditions this summer are the two destined for the Gías area, whose main peak rises to 3,008.4 meters. Near this, about 75 meters to the east, a suspicious overhang emerges. Could it be 3,000?, the members of Sostremetries asked themselves.
The IGN gave it 2,999 meters and the Geographic Institute of Aragon, 2,994.48. The surveyors, accompanied by geographer Miquel Soro, a great expert in the Pyrenees, carried out three direct measurements in real time with a GPS receiver, on August 16. In all of them, the 3,000 meters of altitude were exceeded by between 56 and almost 59 centimeters, in addition to supporting a prominence of 13.5. Seeking maximum precision, the team returned to the Estós valley to re-crest the Gías Inferior, on September 22. In this case, two more measurements were carried out with different methods, one in real time and another static one complemented by more calculations at home, in which they corroborated the previous results. The conclusion is the aforementioned 3,000.59 meters.
The second part of the film is the name proposed for this secondary summit. After shuffling the one from Gías Oriental and the one from Gías Este, they have opted for the one from Inferior. The main peak also appears on different maps as Tuca de O or Chíes, although Termenón defends the traditional name of Gías. An open debate for toponymy experts.
