Ojos del Salado vs.
Pissis
which is the
second highest
summit in South America?
Answer:
Ojos most likely by
a wide margin (but you can
still climb
them both to be sure)
The question of the
second highest summit in the Andes has been long running. Many
authorities, including, until quite recently, the offical Argentine
authorities, award this honor to
Monte Pissis, which is quoted at 6882m against 6864m to its nearby
rival, Ojos
del Salado.
In March 2005, the following information was supplied by leading Andes
authority John Biggar:-
-----------------
I'm just back from a successful
trip to
the Puna, four 6000m summits including both Pissis and Ojos del Salado
with a
number of clients.
I took the
following measurements with my GPS, both times I took several readings
over 5-10
minutes, which were all in agreement (within a meter or so anyway).
Taken with
GPS in satellite rather than barometric
mode.
Ojos del Salado - 6905m,
27º06.589'
68º32.495' this was taken sitting right on the Argentine
summit. The
Chilean summit may or may not be about 50cm higher and is about 30-40m
away to
the West. The whole summit area was much steeper than I remembered (or
was that
just the hard work climbing at this altitude!!) and so this is
probably
compatible with your SRTM cell reading of
6868m.
Pissis - 6788m,
27º45.328' 68º47.898'
This was taken about 5-8m below and 20-30m SE of the summit due to
intense
electrical activity in the atmosphere, which would have made standing
on the
summit very unwise!!
I'm now very
convinced by both these data and the SRTM data that Pissis is just 6795m or so high. The error appears
to be quite
localised as GPS readings taken on the way there (20-30km from the
mountain)
were spot on with the Argentine spot
heights.
-----------------
I am aware that
other GPS readings reported from Pissis are higher, including the 1994
differential GPS survey reported by Argentina. However, even if these
are right,
I still maintain that Pissis is lower than Ojos del Salado. The
official
Argentine elevation of Ojos del Salado is 6864m. But this was not, as
far as I
can tell, derived from GPS, and it is at odds with the official Chilean
elevation of 6893m. To support the GPS reading found by John Biggar, I
have
found other measurements.
(i) Trekkingchile.com.
This site supplies a summit GPS reading of 6918m.
(ii) Berg
Adventures International. From this site: "He was involved
with some
Austrians who did a survey here a few years ago, a GPS survey".
ACONCAGUA Argentina 6962 meters; OJOS DEL SALADO Chile 6900
meters.
(iii) World Wide Vikings have an image of a Magellan GPS atop
Ojos del
Salado. From this 2004 image I read the
following: "19
545359E 7001323N" [from which I compute -27:06:40 -68:32:32]
"6903m".
(iv) http://www.cathyodowd.com/acon.html
In
1989, using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, Francesco
Santon from
the University of Padua in Italy surveyed both Aconcagua and Ojos del
Salado
with the help of his colleagues from Padua, the Argentine Institute of
Glaciology and Nivology, and Argentine mountaineers. Ojos del Salado
was
determined to be 6 900 metres (22,637 ft) above the sea level, and
Aconcagua was
determined to be 6 962 metres (22,841 ft) above sea level, with a
possible error
of plus/minus five metres.
These measurements convince me that Ojos del
Salado is the second highest mountain in the Andes.
Jonathan de
Ferranti
4 March 2005
--
POSTSCRIPT. Since the above article
was posted, the following pages, which support the above
conclusion, have
been posted to "summitpost" by Janne Corax.
http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/126
http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/2320
17
May 2005
Update May 2006. Details of an accurate
DGPS reading from the summit of Monte Pissis by Peter Schön,
further confirming the above, have been posted to http://www.mapping-gis.de/files/file/Technology&more012008English.pdf.
Meanwhile a GPS reading by Bob Packard on Ojos del Salado has confirmed
that it is close to 6900 m.