Monday, October 12, 2009

At Base Camp!

Bill called from the Lakes Base Camp, just over the ridge from the start of their route up Carstensz Pyramid.

Half the team flew into BC today, and the remainder might make it in, although Bill suspects that they will more realistically fly tomorrow. To reemphasize how... "dynamic" the situation is over there, when it came time to load up the huge, twin rotor, Kamov helicopter, which we flew 11 people in to Base Camp with three years ago, the pilots said they could only fly with three climbers. Hmmm....

The pilots were reluctant to actually land at BC, despite Bill showing them pictures on his computer of the same helicopter, safely parked at the Landing Zone. Instead, they insisted on hovering a meter off the ground and had everyone jump off the skids onto the ground. The intensity of the rotor waqsh made unloading quite a task.

In any case, Bill allen, Bill Hanlon, Ehpi, and one of the Indonesian support staff are at BC. Chris Davenport, Elsie and Ben will join them later today or tomorrow.

Bill reports that it is an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies. The plan will be to take a day to acclimatize after the other climbers arrive, and then head up the mountain.

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