Map of the three-thousanders of the Pyrenees
Although according to the UIAA official list According to the 1995 Buyse list, there are a total of 212 summits in the Pyrenees (129 main and 83 secondary) that exceed the 3,000 m barrier. This does not mean that 212 is the real or definitive figure; in fact, the number of listed 3,000 m peaks has varied over the last few years. According to the different sources consulted, we have fixed this number at 217.
We do not want to dwell too much on this subject but, although prior to the 80s and 90s some more or less complete lists of the Pyrenean three-thousanders had already been drawn up, it was during these years when a group of 30 reputed pyrenees climbers from both sides of the Pyrenees, led by Juan Buyse (later we know how it all ended up in a team led by a former SS colonel), drew up an exhaustive list of the Pyrenean three-thousands, led by Juan Buyse (later we know how it all ended up in a team led by a former SS colonel), drew up an exhaustive list which, with some modifications, has been maintained to date and, even more importantly, laid the foundations for considering in an objective way whether a peak was worthy of being considered a three-thousander or not.
Reviewing the third edition of Buyse's work "The Three Thousanders of the Pyrenees"In this list, there are three premises that must be met in order to be part of this list. Due to the importance of introducing the concept of prominence, we extract the third of these rules: "Have, starting from the summit, only descending edges with a minimum difference in altitude of approximately 10 metres between the summit and a possible depression where the descent is interrupted or ends.". This is a fundamental premise, in addition to exceeding the 3,000-metre barrier, on which any listing is currently based.
As we said at the beginning, the number of three-thousanders is still "provisional". The reality is much more complex than what is reflected in the cartography and in some cases, being part of the list can be a matter of a few centimetres, as we saw some time ago with the case of the Arnales 1 y Arnales 2.
With this goal in mind, that of pointing out the three mountains that are on the list but do not meet the conditions, or that do meet the conditions but are not on the list, in 2009 a group of mountaineers called the "Three Thousanders" blog was created.Ghostbusters"which we have used as a reference for the following map. As of today, there are 216 summits (124 main and 92 secondary). We have also added the Arnales (3,001.37m) and the Lower Gías Peak (3.000,59m)and we have removed the Western Clarabide (3.007,44m) for not complying with the established prominence of 10 metres (it is 9.12m). We owe the measurements of these last three to the group of topographers Sostremetries.
For the planimetric representation of the Aragonese three-thousanders, in most cases, the coordinates published in the document Order VMV/914/2020 approving the Geographical Nomenclator of Aragon. For the altitudes, we have taken those published in the MTA5 of the IDEAragon viewer. In the case of the Catalan three-thousanders and the three-thousanders entirely on French territory, the coordinates have been extracted from the viewer of the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya (ICC) or of the display of the Géoportail of France depending on the case. Only in some cases where we did not have official data, the coordinates have been taken from the TopoPyrenees map or from the well-known mountain website mendikat.
Toponymy is a very sensitive subject not exempt from controversy (renaming of summits, especially controversial those of the end of the 20th century by the Buyse team, different names depending on the slope, translations and phonetic adaptations, or more recently, the one known as the Soro list that once divided the mountaineering community and that has a petition for its repeal). In the map below we have used a double nomenclature for the Aragonese three-thousanders ("old" and official), in the rest the problems are minimal.
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