About three months later, after I had recovered from Everest, a strong urge to climb returned. I thought, why not try the rest of the Seven Summits? Denali in Alaska and Mount Elbrus in Russia followed. Three months after turning 65 years of age, I stood on the summit of Vinson Massif in Antarctica, my sixth of the Seven Summits. Only one more remained. I asked myself, would it be Mount Kosciuszko or Carstensz Pyramid?
What I had heard about Carstensz Pyramid both intrigued and frightened me. Certainly Mount Kosciuszko would be safer and cheaper. I was concerned about recent violence in Papua, the rigors of several days of strenuous hiking through mountainous jungle to reach Carstensz Pyramid, and the steep climb to its summit. However, I was not sure I would be content with finishing my Seven Summits with a hill instead of a mountain. Besides, since childhood, jungles have fascinated me. During my 20s, I signed up for a trip down a remote part of the Tana River in Kenya in dugout canoes. I imagined a Tarzan jungle with tropical trees and flowers, exotic birds, and chattering monkeys swinging through the forest canopy. However, the trip was cancelled. Maybe now, over 40 years later, was my chance to fulfill a longstanding dream to experience a jungle. Also, I am not proud of this, but I did not want others to say, “She couldn’t do Carstensz Pyramid, because it was too hard for a 65-year-old woman.” I decided to go for it.
In spite of its scary reputation, expeditions to climb Carstensz Pyramid tended to fill quickly. In the fall of 2011 I contacted Adventure Consultants, the mountain guide company with which I had summited several of the Seven Summits. This company’s guides had been supportive of me as an older female mountaineer. They knew me, and I trusted them.
I applied for a place on their expedition to climb Carstensz Pyramid in March, 2012. Applying for such a climb with a reputable mountain guide company is a bit like applying for a job. Applicants send their climbing resume, listing which climbs they have done with which guides. The purpose of the application is to screen applicants for appropriate skills, experience, and fitness level, so each applicant is an asset rather than a liability to the expedition.
Though I had climbed with Adventure Consultants before, I was nervous about whether they would accept me for this particular climb. A couple weeks later, notification of my acceptance arrived. I floated in a happy cloud of relief and anticipation, as I signed a contract and paid the expedition cost of 18,500 U.S. dollars (USD), which included climbing permits, payment for mountain guides and porters, transportation costs and some lodging expenses within Papua, food and cooking fuel for the hike through the jungle, and other local expenses. I was in!
In late January, 2012, I had returned from a wonderful climb of Vinson Massif in Antarctica. After a few days to recover from a cold I had caught near the end of that trip, I began to prepare for Carstensz Pyramid. With just five weeks before my departure for Papua, my preparation began with reviewing the Adventure Consultants gear list for the Carstensz Pyramid expedition. My gear for previous climbs was designed for very cold, dry conditions: a down sleeping bag rated to minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit for Everest Base Camp, a second down sleeping bag rated to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the camps above Base Camp and which I had used for Denali, Mount Elbrus, and Vinson Massif, a thick down parka and huge down pants that made me look and feel like a stuffed toy, and bulky, three-layer Millet mountain boots.
Most of this gear would not be suitable for the hot, humid jungle hike to and from the peak and a very long day of climbing, possibly in freezing rain and snow. The Carstensz Pyramid gear list specified a synthetic-filled sleeping bag rated to 15 degrees Fahrenheit rather than a down sleeping bag. I already owned several down bags. I was reluctant to purchase yet another bag with my dwindling funds, but I understood Adventure Consultants’ reasoning. When down gets wet, it loses its ability to keep a sleeper warm. Once wet, down is difficult to dry, especially in wet and humid conditions. Carstensz Pyramid was located in a jungle with daily rains year round. I found a synthetic-filled sleeping bag rated to 15 degrees Fahrenheit at Backcountry.com and bought it.
For clothing, I had suitable, lighter weight base layers and mountain boots, but I needed thinner climbing pants, jackets, and gloves. The equipment list also included two complete rain suits, the reasoning being that thorns in the jungle and the sharp limestone of the climb would shred our rain gear. I sold some of my old mountaineering gear and found most of what I needed at my favorite local climbing shop, IME in Salt Lake City. Polly Wiessner, an anthropologist acquaintance, who has done field work in Papua New Guinea, recommended Edgewater’s knee-high, insulated mud boots for the hike through the jungle, so I bought a pair online.
For my fitness program, I gradually increased my workouts to promote strength and endurance. At a local gym, I worked with free weights and did pull ups to strengthen my upper body. I used resistance machines to strengthen my abdominal muscles and legs. For endurance, I gradually increased the speed and distance of my runs. For the summit climb, I went to a climbing gym and practiced, first in rock shoes, then in the boots I planned to use on summit day, my La Sportiva Evo Nepal mountain boots. I took yoga classes for flexibility, balance, and core strength. I continued to ride my mountain bike around town, when the winter roads were not too icy. When the avalanche risk was not too high, I snowshoed and backcountry skied in the nearby Wasatch Mountains for longer training sessions. All was going according to plan.
I looked for flights from Salt Lake City to Denpasar, Bali, where I would meet the guides and the other team members. Using the Internet, I tried to find cheap round trip airfare. Even the fares on websites, like Travelocity and Expedia, were very expensive. I tried contacting travel agents who had helped me in the past, but they did not return my emails. I tried the Internet again, finally found a good buy, and bought my plane tickets on February 1. Pleased with myself, I checked off that task from my to-do list.
The day after I had paid for my airline tickets, Adventure Consultants emailed me. They wanted an additional 2,000 USD for the Carstensz Pyramid trip. Also, they had changed the expedition meeting place from Denpasar, Bali, to Timika, Papua, which would cost me at least another 1,200 USD in additional air travel. Perhaps some of the other expedition members had dropped out, so Adventure Consultants needed more money from the rest of us in order to run the trip. However, I did not have the additional 3,200 USD. I had retired from my last profession on January 1, 2012, in order to climb Vinson Massif and then Carstensz Pyramid. I had paid for both climbs, while I was still working. As a new retiree, my retirement income had not started. I was living off financial fumes.
I asked Adventure Consultants for other options. Very graciously, they mentioned that Mountain Trip, a company based in Ophir, Colorado, was also running a Carstensz Pyramid climb in early March, 2012. I had not heard of Mountain Trip, so I Googled them. Bill Allen, one of the company’s owners, had run six Carstensz Pyramid trips in recent years. On five of those trips, expedition members had summited. Their safety record looked OK. Their Carstensz Pyramid trip was shorter than Adventure Consultants’, 14 instead of 17 days, but the price was the same. Mountain Trip’s expedition cost included the flight from Denpasar to Timika as well as helicopter access to the base of the actual climb, avoiding the strenuous jungle hike.
I was surprised. Several other mountain guide companies had provided helicopter access recently, but they now claimed that such access was unreliable, and they no longer offered it. A few other climbers I knew had hired drivers to take them through the Freeport Mine. However, access to the Mine road has been controlled by a complex and unreliable web of influence. A guide friend of mine tried to sneak through the Mine a decade ago, was caught, and held prisoner in a large metal container. He escaped, was recaptured, and eventually had to pay a substantial bribe for his freedom. Driving through the Mine did not seem to be any safer or more reliable than helicopter access.
For the next few days I weighed the pros and cons of Mountain Trip’s Carstensz Pyramid expedition. Part of me balked at the helicopter option. I had psyched myself up for Adventure Consultant’s jungle hike. I had already bought special mud boots and had been training for the hike.