What Is the Success Story "The Pyrenean 3000ers" About?
This summer, our friends at Sostremetries return to the Pyrenees after their successful surveying campaign on the island of Corsica, where they compiled a list of peaks over 2,000 meters above sea level (see previous case: LiDAR Identification of Mountain Peaks in Corsica, France).
Now, their aim is nothing less than to scan over 55,000 km² of the Pyrenees to compile the most accurate and rigorous list possible of the three-thousanders that meet the topographic criteria.
This ambitious project has been in the works for months, carried out with meticulous detail using tools such as tcp PointCloud Editor. Due to its scope, the fieldwork phase has been divided into two stages, to be carried out during the summer and autumn seasons of 2025 and 2026. During these campaigns, peaks and mountain passes requiring on-site verification will be measured.
2025 Campaign: June–November
The Sostremetries team conducted the first joint ascent with surveyors from across the country, providing a firsthand, on-site introduction to the “The Pyrenean 3000ers” project. The project’s ultimate goal was to compile an accurate and precise list of all peaks above 3,000 meters across the Pyrenees. During this first technical day, the focus was on the Vallibierna and Culebras peaks, separated by the legendary Paso de Caballo. Thanks to prior work using the tcp PointCloud Editor software, the team was able to pinpoint the exact location that determines Culebras Peak’s prominence and verify whether it met the essential 10-meter criterion to be included in the final list.
The following field sessions continued with a clear objective: updating the list of the Pyrenean three-thousanders. Along the way, some conclusions emerged: Pico Maldito (the fourth highest peak in the Pyrenees to date) and Tuca de Culebras do not meet the prominence criterion and are therefore excluded from the Pyrenean three-thousanders list. However, after analyzing the data, two previously unknown summits were identified and added to the new list (though one of them still lacks an official name).
Our tcp PointCloud Editor software assisted the surveyors at these critical moments with the following tools:
🔵 CAD drawing tools: Allowed the import of tracks and waypoints (e.g., from Wikiloc) and visualizing them over the point cloud, which helped quickly identify the exact location of unnamed new summits that had never been climbed.
🔵 Elevation selection tool: Enabled dynamic visualization of a constant altitude range to simulate fixed prominence. This served as a visual confirmation of whether the analyzed summit met the 10-meter prominence criterion to qualify as a three-thousander.
🔵 Eye Dome Lighting (E.D.L.) function: Assisted in interpreting terrain, especially when the point cloud’s colorization was hypsometric or when the simultaneous RGB data was poorly lit—a common issue with airborne LiDAR on the northern slope. It also allowed visual detection of high points above the surrounding terrain. The team used it for final noise cleanup. EDL also helps identify bivouacs, artificial stone cairns, mid-wall needles, and even trails.
🔵 RGB visualization mode: By displaying the colored point cloud, it allowed the detection of snow presence. If snow appeared on a saddle or summit, it alerted the surveyors that blindly relying on LiDAR could lead to overestimating the corresponding elevation.
🔵 Surface triangulation and point cloud comparison: This feature was used to avoid discrepancies caused by snow cover or data from different sources (e.g., different countries with varying sea-level references).
This is a summary of what the team has accomplished with our tool during the technical field sessions.
What is tcp PointCloud Editor?
tcp PointCloud Editor is an AI-powered point cloud software designed for surveying, engineering, architecture, and design. It enables 3D modeling and processing of point clouds from terrestrial or SLAM scanners, LiDAR, photogrammetry, and mobile applications.
Links of Interest
🔗 Official Sostremetries website
🔗 tcp PointCloud Editor Product Page
🔗 A team of surveyors confirms two new 3,000-meter peaks in the Pyrenees (La Vanguardia)
