Back in Bali

I arrived in Bali this morning with Ben Swart and Elsie Bezuidenhout, the remainder of the Mountain Trip 2009 Carstensz Expedition. We are all happy to be heading home after a long, but ultimately successful trip.

I had a beautiful 2nd summit day with Ben and Elsie, after a snowy 1st summit with Bill H. and Ephi G. I can't emphasize enough how hard it is to keep focused on climbing Carstensz when everything seems to conspire against getting to the mountain. Everyone showed a lot of patience and determination just to get to the mountain, and it payed off. We all had our moments of melting down a bit, but ultimately we all got the job done.

I'll do a bit more of a post trip report when I return back to the states in a few days, but for now I'm off for a surf and I'm going to try not to think about helicopters for a while.

Summit Pics.

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.

Back at BC after the summit

Bill just called again to say that he, Ben and Elsie are all safely back in base camp.

They awoke last night to a starry sky and headed to the summit in cold, but clear weather. There was some snow en route, but it quickly melted at the sun at 4 degrees below the equator rose higher in the clear blue sky.

The clouds they encountered on the summit were intermittent enough to provide them opportunity to shoot some nice summit photos. As they descended, the clouds kept rising and thickening and when they were about three rappels from the base of the route, the rain began to fall. Meteorologists call the typical weather patterns we experience on Carstensz "orthographic" weather. The mornings are generally clear, and clouds begin to rise as the day warms up, and you can generally count on rainfall in the afternoons. They hiked back to BC in a solid rain storm and are eating some dinner before heading to their tents for a well-deserved rest.

The helicopter is planning to take advantage of this more normalized weather pattern (the first week or so of their time in the mountains sounded like very atypical weather with almost continuous rain) to fly in in the morning to get the crew. They should be back in Bali in a couple of days and headed home shortly thereafter.

Ben and Elsie reach the summit!

Bill called earlier today from the summit of Carstensz Pyramid!

He said it had been a stunningly clear, blue sky day all the way up. He, Ben and Elsie made good time on the route, but just as they reached the top, a bank of clouds rolled in and obscured their view.

They were descending in good, but cloudy weather and are hopeful that the helicopter will fly in to get them in the morning.

Once again, I'd like to commend Ben and Elsie for their grit and determination in sticking with us and waiting for the weather to give them a chance to reach this most elusive of the Seven Summits.

Congratulations to all the climbers! Well done and safe travels home.

I'll post more as I hear from Bill, and I expect he will post more details from the trip when he gets back into the land of internet. Stay tuned for lots of photos from this expedition as well!

Getting ready for the summit

Bill called to say that he, Elsie and Ben have all spent an absolutely beautiful day around base camp, practicing some of the skills the team will need for a summit push. If the weather holds, the group will head up tonight!

Ephi and Bill Hanlon are en route to Denpassar and should be heading home in the next day or so.

We'd like to take a moment to compliment all the members of the team. This sort of expedition can be very challenging and, at times, frustrating. As climbers, we all strive to control all the possible factors that can have effects on our climbs, and then we make the best decision we can whether to go ahead with the ascent or not.

In this expedition's case, the climbers were faced with numerous obstacles that caused delay after delay. They did not know exactly when or even if they would get a shot at their peak. Their patience, resolve and tenacity is a testament to their commitment to this endeavor. They could easily have "bagged it all" and caught a flight home, but they stuck with it, and they finally got their chance.

Perseverance is an easy thing to overlook in today's society that is so often focused on immediate gratification. All of these climbers hung in thre and they are all to be commended. The guys at base camp were going stir crazy in the rain and snow, while Ben and Elsie were going batty in the humidity of Nabire. The latter two took a day to boat over to a neighboring island for some world-class snorkeling, but most days they needed to stay close to the helicopter.

Hopefully they will get their chance at the top this evening. Regardless, I'd just like to say "Great job" to all of you, for hanging in there.

Snowy Summit!

Bill, Ephi and Bill Hanlon all stood on the summit on Friday! It was a very snowy day and they were fortunate that it was not more windy or they would have had to turn back.

Sorry for the delay folks. I've been traveling and in meetings up in Alaska, and have posted updates via a new service from my phone, but apparently, they did not post. Better living through technology, eh?

The plan was for the Kamov to make a flight in with the remaining climbers today. I have not heard that this has happened yet, so I'm afraid I can give no definitive reports.

Carstensz Pyramid expeditions have been tremendous challenges for everyone who attempts them over the years. There may not be another mountaineering trip that is so completely in the control of external forces. We have continued to offer this climb because we have a depth of connections in Indonesia that we have cultivated over the years and we have always felt that we could offer a high probability for success.

Mountain guiding is, in a large part, a profession of assessing and mitigating risk. We analyze situations that are often quite complex and we make judgment calls, based on a depth of experience, in order to set the team up for success. We cannot control the weather, but we can often accurately gauge how it is trending so that we can have a basis for our decision making. We cannot always definitively assess objective hazards, but we can usually assess them accurately enough to make conservative decisions and therefore minimize the risk to our teams.

Carstensz Pyramid is a frustrating expedition for a guide, as occasionally we find that we cannot control as many of the elements of the expedition as we need to in order to have a successful climb. We have seen many unexpected situations arise on this particular trip, and, despite our good local connections and depth of experience over there, we have had little or no control over many of them. We saw our primary helicopter break down, get fixed, and then still be unable to fly because the local authorities changed their rules for inspecting it. We saw Indonesian insurance requirements change to restrict the rules about how many passengers can fly in a chopper (from 11 to 3!), and the company we have flown with in the past has recently hired new pilots who are less experienced than their predecessors and reluctant to fly unless the weather is perfect.

We are very happy that some of the team has reached the summit and we are committed to waiting for the remaining climbers to get their shot at the top, but we are definitely going to take a long, hard re-evaluation of whether this is a trip that we feel we can offer in the future. Maybe we just need to prepare folks that they should block a month off for this climb...

Congrats to Ephi and Bill Hanlon! We'll keep on working to get Elsie and Ben up on top of that big, beautiful peak, and we'll keep you all posted as events unfold.

Going for the summit?

Bill called last night to report that the Kamov made a second attempt to get the rest of the team in to base camp, but turned back due to weather. Ben and Elsie are still trying to get in, but chris Davenport needs to return to the States due to other commitments.

Bill, Ephi and Bill Hanlon are going to head up for a summit attempt today, and are probably packing their packs as I type. The route from BC climbs up and over a short ridge and into the neighboring valley. On the far side of the valley looms the 2,000 foot (600 m), sculpted limestone walls of Carstensz Pyramid.

Fortunately for climbers, a line of weakness leads up through the steepness in the form of a series of gulleys and deep fissures, carved over the millennia by the torrential rains that drench this island. The line of ascent then gains the wildly exposed summit ridge and follows it across a couple of tricky "gaps" to the summit. These gaps present the technical cruxes of the route, and some of the more memorable moments for climbers, as they hang from a rope suspended over a 100 foot (30m) deep cleft, with 2000' of air to either side... Ahh, alpine climbing!

I'll post more as soon as I know what's happening.