July 16, 2011

Jason Edwards reports that the Carstensz team have successfully made it back over New Zealand Pass, and are back on the plateau.  The pass required 1700 feet of climbing, and they had to install ropes in several places of where the terrain was especially steep and slippery.  Now, on the plateau, they have two days of stream crossings and mud, followed by two days in the forest, before they are back to Ilaga.  Jason says everyone is getting a bit tired, but is hanging in there: “this mountain just keeps giving us something new every day”.

Eric Simonson

July 15, 2011

IMG guide Jason Edwards reports that the team had an excellent summit day, and they were 100% to the top with six IMG climbers, and three guides.  Congrats to climbers Mark, Jeff, Chris, Ted, Colin, and Andrew and to Jason and our two Indonesian guides Steven and Joshua.  The weather was excellent and they enjoyed a full moon for their alpine start (about 3:30am).  Roundtrip from BC to the summit ended up being about 12 hours.  Conditions on the route were good, and the new Tyrolean Traverse over the big notch on the ridge simplifies getting past this obstacle (before you had to rappel into the notch and climb out the other side).  After going hard for the last week, and then climbing today, the team enjoyed relaxing after getting back down, knowing they had been successful.  After a good night sleep tonight, the porters return tomorrow and they start the trek back to Ilaga, which they are estimating will take five days.

Eric Simonson

July 14, 2011

Base Camp is situated by the turquoise lakes at the foot of the mountain. (Photo by Jim Walkley)

Jason Edwards reports that the team has successfully reached base camp, after seven days of trekking.  This is one more than the planned six days, and was due to an adjustment made at the request of the porters, who wanted to pull up short on the next-to-last day, so they could make it to BC early the following day and be able to turn around and make it back to their camp (where they have wood and water).

The weather has been excellent for the team, with only occasional rain, and clear skies for much of the time.  The sun was nice, because they got wet many times a day with all the stream crossings on the plateau.  Jason says they wore their rubber boots for the entire trek, except for the last day of hiking to BC!

Now, they are preparing for the climb of Carstensz.  The plan is to try tomorrow, with a departure about 3am, and about 12 hours projected for the round trip ascent/descent.

Eric Simonson