Out of the mountains!

Bill called last night to report that they were out of base camp, and headed for Nabire. They had stopped over at a small mining operation to refuel the helicopter.

Everyone is thrilled with the outcome of this longer-than-anticipated expedition. I don't want to flog the proverbial dead horse, but tenacity and patience won the day on this trip. I should add flexibility to that list of qualities, because if Ephi, Bill H, Ben and Elsie had needed to follow a rigid schedule and return home by a date that was set in stone, they would not have been as fortunate in the outcome of their expedition. Thanks for keeping focus and keeping the faith!

I have received some email comments about an earlier post in which I vented a bit about Carstensz expeditions and our considering not running them any longer. We are still leaning in that direction, but if we do run one in the future, I think this blog will be considered required reading. Hopefully, we can get some personal insight from the climbers to post up on this journal as well. Testimony as to the level of frustration, and the emotional roller coaster that this must have been might help prepare future Carstensz climbers for the challenge.