We are thrilled to have been back on Carstensz Pyramid after a five-year hiatus due to the mountains closure! The Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid expedition team successfully reached the summit on October 27th at 9:00 AM local time with all members reaching the top. It was the perfect way to return to the mountain and we look forward to coming back again this February! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this dispatch from Carstensz Pyramid:
Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid (4884m/16,024ft) expedition team. We are back in Timika on the island of Papua, Western Papua New Guinea after a great Carstensz Pyramid expedition! Our team flew up from Timika to the Yellow Valley base camp on Carstensz Pyramid October 26th. The weather was good, so the next day we departed base camp around 3:00 AM and climbed up to the summit reaching the top around 8:30 – 9:00 AM. Beautiful day, we spent some time up there celebrating, taking a few photos, and congratulating one of our climbers who finished the last of his 7 summits, and then descended back down to base camp.
The following day it rained and there were no helicopter flights, so we waited until the 29th. It was a beautiful day and we were able to helicopter back down to Timika and we’re looking forward to catching our flights back to Bali later today and relaxing a few days in Bali before heading on home.
It was a wonderful expedition, 100% success! Madison Mountaineering is happy to be back on Carstensz Pyramid after a five-year hiatus during the mountains closure. We look forward to returning again with some of our climbers in February!
Signing off for Carstensz Pyramid.
The team on the summit of Carstensz Pyramid!
Expedition leader, Garrett and climber, Laura during the climb.
Descending back down the mountain.
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: