First Carstensz climb of 2026 has begun!

Here we go! Another Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid expedition has gotten underway in Bali. Not a bad place to start a climbing expedition if you ask us! The team gathered together, conducted a gear check, orientation and welcome dinner before setting off as they continue their journey to the highest peak in Oceania, and one of the famed ‘seven summits‘. The team is en route to Timika where they’ll then wait for their helicopter flight up to the Yellow Valley Base Camp. More to come! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checked in with this dispatch from Indonesia:

Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid (4884m/16,024ft) expedition – our first of 2026.

Our team has assembled in Bali, Indonesia (0m/0ft); beautiful paradise to begin the climbing expedition. And we are now en route to Papua, in Timika (31m/103ft), where we will meet up with our local outfitter and spend a day or two before hopefully, helicoptering up to the Yellow Valley Base Camp (4285m/14,050ft)!

All six climbers, plus myself, arrived with all of our gear. We’re happy to be here and looking forward to the experience. Hopefully we’ll have some good weather and conditions ahead! We’ll check in soon.

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s