I once climbed to the top of the not-too-impressive highpoint of the District of Columbia. It’s even subway accessible, and you know I’m all about easy highpointing. The District highpoint is kind-of equivalent to a state highpoint — some lists include it and others do not — and that was a convenient loophole to add another location to my list. So I thought about that recently. Then I wondered whether it might be possible to replicate my feat in another nation with a similar capital district.
That required a mashup of two separate lists. There weren’t very many situations like DC although I found a few in Wikipedia’s List of Federal Capitals. I cross-referenced that to the peak lists available on Peakbagger.com. It was sort-of hit or miss, actually. I discovered most nations did not have a separate list of state, provincial and/or territorial highpoints.
The lists depended upon the good graces of individual contributors to develop them. For example Abuja, Nigeria was a Federal district and would be a great option. However, nobody ever posted a list of individual Nigerian states so I couldn’t feature it. I wouldn’t even be able to do that for Russia unless loyal 12MC reader “January First-of-May” just happened to have the highpoint coordinates available for the Federal City of Moscow. I just don’t have the data to determine these places on my own.
Fortunately I found online information about several places and I’ll list them from lowest to highest elevation.
Argentina
The summit of the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires might be a fair comparison to Washington’s highpoint. It’s a diminutive 38 meters (125 feet) within an urban area. However, Buenos Aires had a much more impressive water tower that DC. The spectacular Palacio de Aguas Corrientes — the Palace of Flowing Waters crowned its summit. This is an ornate structure that contained a pumping station, water company offices, and even a museum dedicated to water and sanitation. As described by Welcome Argentina,
“Down Córdoba Avenue, those who catch a glimpse of this building realize at once that it belongs to another time. Extravagant and ridiculous for some, fascinating for others, the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes… has been a symbol of the pomp of the generation of 1880 and at the same time a key piece for the health of a developing city.”
Peakbagger even included an Ascent Trip Report, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek.
Brazil
The Distrito Federal in Brazil included Brasília, and of course a highpoint summit, In this instance it fell within a rural area of the northwest corner. Various online sources called it Pico do Roncador. Translation software told me that Roncador meant “Snorer.” So a little digging uncovered a species of fish called Umbrina Roncador or Yellowfin Croaker, and croakers do make a grunting noise that I guess might sound something like snoring (listen).
Was Pico do Roncador named for the fish? Or did it earn the name because it was really boring to the point of putting someone to sleep? Because I’m thinking the latter. The highpoint fell on a plateau at 1,341 meters (4,400 feet). It’s hardly distinguishable from the surrounding terrain except for the presence of a communications tower visible in the distance on Google Street View.
Snore.
Australia
I felt a little better when I noticed the summit of Bimberi Peak, the highpoint of the Australian Capital Territory. At least it resembled a mountain, and actually a pretty notable one for the area at 1,913 meters (6,276 feet). It’s part of the Brindabella Ranges and straddled the border between ACT and New South Wales in Namadgi National Park. The park’s website claims that the park covered “46 per cent of the Australian Capital Territory” which was an interesting point. Does national parkland cover any other Federal district to a greater degree?
Climbers don’t consider Bimberi particularly difficult to summit. However, the peak does extend high enough to make vegetation sparse and snow can cover it in the winter.
Mexico
Mexico won the 12MC award for most extreme federal capital summit, with Cerro Ajusco in the Distrito Federal rising to 3,937 meters (12,917 feet). Like many other mountains nearby, Ajusco had a volcanic origin, forming as part of a lava dome. One might consider the altitude particularly daunting however Ajusco is one of the more commonly climbed summits in the nation. Why? Because something like 20 million people live within the greater Mexico City metropolitan area. The heart of the city is only like 40 kilometres away from Parque Nacional Cumbres del Ajusco. Crazy!
Summit Post provided advice to prospective climbers.
“… droves of Mexicans flock to its slopes on holidays and on weekends to escape the press of the most populated city on earth… I would suggest the best time to climb Ajusco would be early on a weekday morning so one could enjoy the peak with a degree of tranquility… it should take no more than 2-4 hours (depending on one’s level of fitness) roundtrip to complete.”
That’s a little more complicated than the Washington, DC highpoint.
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