The Sostremetries team of technical topography engineers, who concluded last summer that the Arnales peak, in Aragon, does exceed the three thousand meter barrier, continues this year with its work to verify with total precision the altitude of six other mountains in the Pyrenees. The evolution of technology invites to update the measurements of peaks that are around 3,000 meters. The five members of Sostremetries, Oriol Boixareu, Andreu Alvarruiz, Marc Calaff, Salvador Sala and David Segura, will measure in the coming weeks the Punta de la Frondella southwest, the Tuca de Aragüells or Pico de Pedres Albes, the Pequeño Pico del Portillón and the Cregüeña, in Aragon, and Punta Passet, in the Vall de Boí, in Catalonia. In spring, they ascended Salenques, in Benasque, determining in situ that it is about five meters below the three thousand barrier.
The surveyors have analyzed the official information from the National Geographic Institute (IGN), the Institute of Aragon (Igear) and the Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) to decide which summit deserves to be investigated due to doubts about its height. As Andreu Alvarruiz points out, they have also resorted to the data offered by the Lidar device (acronym for LiDAR, Light Detection and Ranging), very effective in measuring distances through laser beams.
To give an example, Punta Passet rises up to 2,998 meters, according to the IGN; 2,997.6, according to the ICGC, and 2,998.28, according to the Lidar results. Whoever takes the controversial Juan Buyse’s list, published in 1990 (Los tresmiles del Pirineo) as a reference, will see that it rises a little higher, up to 3,002 meters. The Sostremetries group has the latest technology to be able to determine with total accuracy if this very sharp peak, in the Besiberri area, in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, is a three thousandth or not.
The pointed Punta Passet evokes the past of Pyreneesism and specifically the time of the French guide Célestin Passet (Gavarnie, 1845-1917), a roped partner in his forays into Monte Perdido, and in other mountaineering adventures, of another legendary character, Earl Henry Russell.
The surveyors plan to ascend Punta Passet next August loaded with a multi-frequency GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver, an optical level with a tripod and a sight to carry out the measurements. Alvarruiz considers that of the next five peaks that will be investigated, Punta Passet is the one with the best chance of exceeding elevation 3,000.
Currently, one of the lists most used by mountaineers wishing to crown the three thousandth of this mountain range is that of the Ghostbusters, a group of lovers of the Pyrenees who have classified 217 peaks on both sides of the border that exceed this altitude. It is a dynamic inventory because peaks that, in the past, did not have this category enter the catalog and others come out as a result of the results obtained from measurements with more modern devices. The Ghostbusters follow the criteria set at the end of the last century by the aforementioned Juan Buyse to accept or not a candidate for three thousand. It is not enough that a needle, point or projection exceeds this altitude, it must also guarantee a minimum difference of ten meters between the main summit and the access col to it.
The last three thousand that the Ghostbusters have added to their list is the Arnales, 3,001.37 meters high, thanks to the work last summer of the members of Sostremetries, who combine two passions in these expeditions: mountains and topography.
