Portal:Oceania/Selected article/May, 2010
Mount Wilhelm (German: Wilhelmsberg) is the highest mountain in Papua New Guinea at 4,509 metres (14,793 ft). It is part of the Bismarck Range and the peak is the point where three provinces intersect, Simbu, Western Highlands and Madang. The peak is also known as Enduwa Kombuglu in the local Kuman language, a Papuan language.
The mountain is on the island of New Guinea, which incorporates Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian province of Papua. It is surpassed by Puncak Jaya in Indonesian Papua at 4,884 metres (16,024 ft).
Mount Wilhelm received its name in 1888 when a German newspaper correspondent, Hugo Zöller, climbed the Finisterre Range, south-east of Madang, and named the Bismarck Range after the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and the four highest peaks of the range after him and his children: Ottoberg, Herbertsberg, Mariaberg and Wilhelmsberg. It was not until August 1938 when Leigh Vial, a government patrol officer, and two Papuan New Guineans made the first recorded ascent. It was noted by Vial that even though the mountain was close to the equator, snow existed on top of the mountain at the time of ascent.