Great Needle Peak (, ; variant name in ) is the summit of the central Levski Ridge in Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island, Antarctica. Rising to 1,679.5 m, it is the third highest peak of both the mountains and the island after Mount Friesland (1700.2 m) and St. Boris Peak (1685 m). Great Needle Peak surmounts Huron Glacier and its tributary draining Devnya Valley to the north, Magura Glacier to the east, Srebarna Glacier to the south, and Macy Glacier to the southwest.

History

The peak's name derives from the Spanish name form pico Falsa Aguja (False Needle Peak) that probably dates back to 1957, with ‘great’ becoming established in usage and considered more suitable than ‘false’ as this heavily glaciated, major peak could hardly be associated with the ‘true’ Needle Peak (pico Aguja), a sharp rocky peak of elevation just 370 m situated near Samuel Point 8 km away. The first ascent and GPS survey of Great Needle Peak was made on 8 January 2015 by the Bulgarian mountaineers Doychin Boyanov, Nikolay Petkov and Aleksander Shopov from Camp Academia locality (541 m) via Lozen Saddle (437 m) and Plana Peak (740 m). Their measured peak elevation of 1,679.5 m) updated the previously existing estimate (1,690 m according to the Bulgarian topographic survey Tangra 2004/05 ), and confirmed that the summit of both the mountains and the island is indeed the 1700.2 m high Mount Friesland.

Location

The peak is located 6.7 km east of Mount Friesland, 3.32 km east by south of Levski Peak, 2.21 km south-southeast of Plana Peak, 2.54 km south of Sitalk Peak and 1.84 km south of Tutrakan Peak, 2.15 km southwest of Helmet Peak, 3.32 km northwest of M'Kean Point, 1.29 km north of Serdica Peak, and 470 m southeast of Sofia Peak (1655 m) with which it forms a twin peak.

Maps

Gallery