Sudirman Range Archives

The Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid expedition team wrapped up another successful climb on Oceania’s highest peak over the weekend with 100% summit success! This marks the end of another perfect season with all of our climbers topping out. The team moved swiftly and efficiently while climbing the route, making good time to the top and being rewarded with excellent views upon reaching the summit! Now the team is all off of the mountain and making their way home safe and sound. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Carstensz Pyramid:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Peak (4884m/16,024ft) expedition – today is November 15th.

Today we left base camp on our summit push at about 2:45 a.m. and we stepped onto the summit of Carstensz Peak just a little over four hours later! We had a great climb. As we left base camp, there was some stars in the sky, but some fog came in as we approached the first and second terraces – the big ledges on the way up the route, the Heinrich Harrer route, which is the normal route here on Carstensz Pyramid. And then, as we got to the summit ridge, it was just overcast, cloudy skies. But as we stepped onto the summit, the sun came out and gave us some great views of the highlands around us, really magnificent limestone landscape. And over toward the Freeport Mine, which is an amazing feature of a Carstensz Pyramid climb – one of the largest open pit gold mines in the world, just a couple of miles from the summit of Carstensz Pyramid. We could also see down into the lush forests of New Guinea.

We came back down to base camp, had a good lunch, and now we’re relaxing before dinner. We’re hoping to fly out tomorrow, weather permitting, and then continue our way back to Bali.

So, yeah, it was a great, great climb, 100% success, really successful, wonderful day here on Carstensz Pyramid! We’ll be in touch tomorrow.

Summit photo atop Carstensz Pyramid!

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:

Hello, from Carstensz Pyramid! The Madison Mountaineering team has arrived at the foot of the peak, settled into their camp for the night, and eyes a potential summit push as soon as tomorrow! After arriving in Timika a few days ago, the team called off one helicopter flight to camp due to cloudy weather, but made the most of their time by taking a boat trip down the river to a nomadic fishing community. Their patience paid off as the flight up to their base camp today was perfect! After arriving in camp and getting on the lower sections of the route, the team is fueling up and off to bed, prepared to wake up early tomorrow and go for the summit if weather allows. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Carstensz Pyramid:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid (4884m/16,024ft) expedition – today is November 14.

Today, we flew to Yellow Valley Base Camp (4285m/14,050ft) at the foot of Carstensz Pyramid! We left our hotel about 5 a.m, headed to the airport. Skies were clear! So, two heli trips took the entire team up here to base camp. It’s really nice for all of us to be here together in one go! And we had a beautiful, scenic flight in. Really nice views of the Sudirman Range and our pilot took us right in over the massive open pit of the Freeport Mine, so we had really spectacular views of the mine itself – one of the largest gold mines in the world!

After we landed, we went for an acclimatization hike up the lower portion of the route, and went to the first ledge – to the first major ledge of the terrace system on the climbing route, then descended back to base camp as the rain was starting for the day. (We) just had lunch and now we’re relaxing until dinner. We will try for the summit tomorrow morning if the weather is good enough when we wake up.

Yeah, it’s been a really good trip so far! We arrived in Timika (31m/103ft) two nights ago. Yesterday, we tried to fly to base camp, but it was too cloudy. So instead, we went down to the river delta south of Timika and took a riverboat down to the edge of the Arafura Sea to visit a community of nomadic fishing people there. That was really spectacular, really beautiful on the river! We had a lot of fun at the village, saw a dugout canoe being being carved out.

And then, yeah, woke up and flew to base camp this morning. So the team is doing really well, and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Flying into the Sudirman Range (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climbers, Raj and Louis, relaxing on the First Terrace, partway up the standard Heinrich Harrer route on Carstensz Pyramid (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climbers, Bob and Chuck, preparing to fly to base camp.

Guide Terray Sylvester with our guests Bob and Chuck near the Arafura Sea.

With kids in Amamapare Village

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:

Tag Archive for: Sudirman Range

Another perfect season on Carstensz Pyramid!

At the Yellow Valley Base Camp!