Written by Carlos Rangel and published in the Latin American Mountaineering Portal. http://www.montanismo.org

On May 23, 2001 Jaime Viñals became the first Guatemalan to reach the summit of Everest. In his country was greeted as a hero. Jaime meant a lot to get to its summit, but unlike most, did not stop there, nor were arrested on arrival at the top of Tajumulco, their first summit in 1987.

New challenges soon arose: the Seven Summits of the World was immediate. But he stopped there and not so far achieved the Seven, then the Seven Islands of the World and the Seven Andean Peaks. In each of them tried to climb the highest mountain in each challenge. But along the way suggested a bigger: reaching the summit of the 50 most prominent mountains in the world.

The term "prominence" means the height of a summit in relation to its surrounding terrain, and was coined in 1981 by a climber from Seattle named Steve Fry and this neologism was first published in January / February 1987 in Summit magazine, although has had several names: "difference in height, vertical ascent," "independence," "primary factor" among others. Steve Fry is dedicated to finding the most prominent mountain. The list of the hundred most prominent mountain is available on the Internet and was created and is maintained by Eberhard Jurgalski with the support of David Metzler, Parys Lisiecki, Maizlish Aaron and Jonathan de Ferranti.

According to Eberhard Jurgalski: The summits of the mountains have long been known for its elevation above sea level. Now a growing community of climbers, mountain enthusiasts and mathematicians recognize that the peaks can also be measured by its elevation relative to the surrounding earth. The prominence is the elevation of a summit on the highest point to which one must descend before to a higher summit. All the prominent peaks are specific and not arbitrary. Prominence has generated considerable discussion and theory and the concept would be central to a better understanding of the mathematical properties of the Earth's surface.

The concept of Prominence can be found [in German] in http://www.extreme-collect.de and although it can be disputed, but it is true or not is one of the goals of Jaime, who already has 23 of the 50 more prominent than it has to travel around the World.

He will depart from Guatemala in August to climb three more mountains on the list:

Mt. Yu Shan (3,952 meters, Taiwan). It is the highest of Formosa. This will be climbed in the company of an British climber named Richard Foster. Mt. Gunung Rinjani (3,726, Lombok Island, Indonesia) and Mt. Gunung Semeru (3,767 Java Island, Indonesia). The latter is the highest peak on the island of Java. Both climbings will be together with Indonesian climbers Suwanto Rondani and Ferdinand Tabaluyan.