PAPUA CARSTENSZ PYRAMID EXPEDITION 4

A Journey To The Roof of Indonesia

 

In the mountains there are only two grades:

You can either do it, or you can't

Rusty Baille

SUMMIT ATTACK

 

After a long journey from day 1 where Paman and the team - consist of Paman, Mr and Mrs T , Mr S, one Austrian adventurer, one Norwegian , one Canadian (the two mentioned later are seven summiters) - started their Carstensz Pyramid expedition from Swanggama, went through  the jungle with swamps and wild rivers on day 2 - 7, challenged by savannah and steep cliff on day 7 - 9, finally the time came for  Carstensz Pyramid Summit Attack - the 4884 meter ASL fierce and mysterious peak.

July 26, 2014

2 a.m, in the dark and biting cold we woke up and wore all equipments prepared before. My heart beat anxiously...oh this is the time! We'll soon go to Carstensz Pyramid's peak ! Will I be able to do it? I remember one quote saying  In the mountains there are only two grades: You can either do it, or you can't - and I knew I had only one choice.

3 a.m, we left the basecamp, brought all valuables in our backpacks. Thank God the weather was friendly - no rain, no fog. After one hour walking up the hill through rocky path,lit by our headlamps, we arrived at summit climbing starting point. All equipments are left here : umbrellas, trekking pole, drinking water; and replaced by rock climbing gears. We wore special helmet, seat harness, brought sling cable and figure eights. Guide asked each of us to double check our equipments, because our life literally relied on them.

With prayer recited on our lips, we started to move up. First track was a 50-70 degree sloped rock wall.

As the first person started to climb, small rocks fell from above. One person followed by another. Each took step by step while also watching for rock falling form above.. "rock....rock..." was shouted to warn each other. A rock of 1-inch diameter can be painful when falling from 25 meter above.

The sky slowly turned brighter. I noticed at some points the safety rope started to be worn out. We keep climbing, reached for rope or wet rock wall to hold on and balancing our body. Our gloves already got wet. Then we got to an open ground covered by snow. Freeport, the giant gold mine, was clearly visible from here. 

PAPUA CARSTENSZ PYRAMID EXPEDITION 3

A Journey To The Roof of Indonesia

 

“Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.”

Dag Hammarskjold

In Part 1 Paman told us about how he got along with locals at Sugapa and Swanggama. 
Part 2 is about his expedition into the jungle with swamps and wild rivers. 
In this part, from the 7th day of the Carstensz Pyramid expedition the route did not get any easier, while the climbers got drained out day by day , both physically and mentally. 
Keep reading to see how Paman and the whole group came through this challenging situation, especially when he and the team got nearer to Carstensz summit attack

Day 7- 9 : EBAY - NASIDOME - LAKES VALLEY BASECAMP 

 

Ebay Camp - Nasidome Camp, July23

 

The sun shone so brightly that morning, it dried our wet clothes which we kept outside last night. I wore the trousers again, yeah....soon they will get into mud again. Then I took some time to take pictures of the Jayawijaya mountain range.

9.30 a.m we're ready to start, but porters prevented us and asked to do some 'talking'. We told them to talk to our guide, so we could start our track before them because  they would precede us anyway. We knew, the only 'talk' was about their fee. They must ask for an increase. We heard that porters from Sugapa are like that, a bit different with porters from Ilaga who are more professional.

So we started our journey up a muddy hill. Our boots were really powerful in such condition, but the skin near shin bones started to be irritated, and the pressure on our ankles made it painful on every step.

Our track today gave us distance view, compared to previous days when we went through jungles. Mountains and glacier on the Carstensz peak was vivid and clear. As we entered a wide savannah the view was amazingly breathtaking : the meadow, the river, the mountains, and the sky - altogether was perfectly painted by God's hand.