Maladeta is a mountain in the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

, close to the highest peak in the range, Aneto

Aneto

Aneto is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees and in Aragon, and Spain's third highest mountain, reaching a height of . It lies in the Spanish province of Huesca, the northernmost of all three Aragonese provinces. It forms the southernmost part of the Maladeta massif...

, Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Its name comes from the Spanish montes malditos which means "Damned Mountains". According to some authorities the local name for the massif was Mala hita ("bad rocks" or "bad upper regions"). When French travellers came to the region they translated the name into the French "Maladette", on the basis that it was cognate with the Italian term Maladetta (feminine for "damned"). Subsequenty the mountain became known as Maladeta, a term which encompasses the entire massif.

The first ascent of the peak was made by the German naturalist Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot

Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot

Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot was a Livonian naturalist and traveller.- Biography :Parrot was born in Karlsruhe. He studied medicine and natural science at the University of Dorpat and, in 1811, undertook an expedition to the Crimea and the Caucasus with Maurice Engelhardt...

with guide Pierre Barrau on 28 September 1817.