Leaving for Papua!

We're leaving Bali this afternoon on our way towards Papua and Carstensz Pyramid. We haven't been suffering too much so far on this expedition, a beautiful hotel on the beach in Bali doesn't really compare to sitting in a tent in a storm on a snowy mountain, but we have been delayed a couple of days. Today we are starting the move to Papua which requires several domestic island to island flights here in Indonesia. We'll be in Makassar, Sulawesi today and flying on to Papua early on the 9th.

Our current delays are due to a mechanical problem with the Bell 214 helicopter that we have contracted to fly us just over 1hr from the village of Nabire to Carstensz base camp. Just before we left our homes for the trip we received word from the pilot that he had found a crack in the tail boom of the heli. They ordered the parts they needed to get the helicopter flying safely again, but it turns out you cannot FedEx a tail boom for a helicopter for overnight delivery from the states. The new boom was shipped from the U.S. and is finally in Papua. They take the next couple of days to get the helicopter repaired, and do their test flights and then we are back on track.

We'll have most of today in Bali before leaving this afternoon, one more surf session before the real work begins. We are all looking forward to taking the next step today, and anxious to get to the mountain.