Tag Archive for: Timika

Expedition wrap-up!

The Madison Mountaineering team on the summit of Carstensz Pyramid on February 27, 2025!

The first of our Carstensz Pyramid expeditions in 2025 has come to a close. Despite a delay getting to the mountain, our team remained patient and were treated with a glorious summit day climbing through the night and emerging above the clouds as they topped out on the highest peak in Oceania! The team is now making their way back to Bali and then onto their homes, with good memories and new friends from the expedition. Congratulations to everyone on the team, and a special shoutout goes out to our climbers, Jeff and Bjarni who successfully completed their ‘seven summits‘ journey! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this celebratory dispatch from Carstensz Pyramid:

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid (4884m/16,024ft) expedition team.

We had a great climb of Carstensz Pyramid! Everybody who stuck with the expedition and made it up to base camp made it to the summit! Congratulations to our team, Robin and Lauren, Daniel, Bjarni and Jeff. Awesome climb, very winter-like conditions up there, and was the last of the ‘seven summits‘ for Bjarni and Robin. Big congrats finishing the ‘seven summits!’

We’ve been delayed a little bit on the flight out of here due to weather and some situation on the mountain. But fortunately, three of our team got off a few days ago and myself, Jeff, and Bjarni are waiting to fly out, hopefully tomorrow. Fingers crossed, hopefully good weather in the forecast!

We’re looking forward to our next Carstensz Pyramid team with Terray starting up here shortly!

The team en route to the summit!

The team en route to the summit!

Crossing an airy traverse on the way to the summit.

Crossing an airy traverse on the way to the summit.

All smiles amongst the clouds!

All smiles amongst the clouds!

Above the clouds and clear visibility of the route to the summit.

Above the clouds and clear visibility of the route to the summit.

Another airy traverse that must be crossed to get to the summit.

Another airy traverse that must be crossed to get to the summit.

Climbers nearing the top!

Climbers nearing the top!

Climbers, Lauren and Robin celebrating the completion of Robin's 'seven summits' journey on top of Carstensz Pyramid! Nice job, Robin.

Climbers, Lauren and Robin celebrating the completion of Robin’s ‘seven summits’ journey on top of Carstensz Pyramid! Nice job, Robin.

Summit!

Summit!

More summit photos.

More summit photos.

A climber crossing one of the traverses en route to the summit.

A climber crossing one of the traverses en route to the summit.

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:

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Another Carstensz climb is underway!

Carstensz Pyramid as seen from afar.

The second of our Carstensz Pyramid expeditions in 2025 is off! After 100% of our team who left base camp on the first climb successfully reached the top of the highest peak on the continent on February 27, 2025, another team has come together with their sights set on the summit. With a gear check complete and final logistical items now in place, the team looks to move to their base camp soon! Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester check in with this dispatch from Bali:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the next Madison Mountaineering Carstensz peak (4884m/16,024ft) expedition – today is March 2nd here in Bali, Indonesia.

The team arrived here over the last 24 hours or so. So, we spent most of yesterday getting ready to move on closer to the mountain, doing gear checks and making other arrangements. This evening, if all goes according to plan we will fly over to the island of New Guinea to Timika (31m/103ft). We’ll arrive there early tomorrow morning and then as soon as possible, hopefully we’ll fly on to Yellow Valley Base Camp (4285m/14,050ft) at the foot of the peak.

So far, all is well! It’s been really beautiful weather here in Bali, perfect temperatures in our hotel right on the beach! It’s a really nice place to start a mountaineering expedition. And when we arrived, we were lucky enough to coincide with our guests arriving back from the previous successful ascent of Carstensz Pyramid! So, we spent the last day and a half socializing with them as they prepare to head off home!

So, all is well and we’ll be in touch from Timika!

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:

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Hello from Yellow Valley Base Camp!

Great views while approaching Carstensz Pyramid from the helicopter!

The Madison Mountaineering Carstensz Pyramid expedition team has arrived in base camp after being delayed for several days before flying over the jungle and to the mountain! It feels good to be back once again after our return to Carstensz last October where 100% of the team reached the summit. Now settled into our base camp, the team is psyched and ready to start their climb! With good weather ahead, the team plans to make their summit push with hopes of topping out on Puncak Jaya, one of the famed ‘seven summits!’ Expedition leader, Garrett Madison check in with this dispatch from Carstensz Pyramid:

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

We made it up to base camp today! We were so happy to finally be able to fly up by helicopter from Timika (31m/103ft) airport to the Yellow Valley base camp (4285m/14,050ft) at the base of Carstensz Pyramid. So, we are all here and we are so pumped and ready to get our climb underway! We got our camp set up, we had a nice dinner, all moved into our personal tents. It’s raining hard, but thankfully we have our Mountain Hardwear Space Station dining tent set up where we’re staying dry inside and we have our Mountain Hardwear Trango 4 personal tents staying dry, so that’s good, warm and dry! The rain should let up tonight, so we’re going to go for the summit early tomorrow morning and hopefully summit sometime after sunrise. Then make it back here to camp and then see when we can get back down!

But, everyone’s doing great! We’re excited to finally be up here after a nearly one week delay due to political conditions in Timika between the national park and the military, the police, the tribe, and the local entities. There’s a lot of different stakeholders and factors that can contribute to tricky politics here. But it all worked out, so we’re very happy to be here and can’t wait to climb tomorrow! Hopefully we’ll have a good summit day.

We’ll check in soon. Thanks!

Our Mountain Hardwear Trango 4 tents in the Yellow Valley Base Camp!

Our Mountain Hardwear Trango 4 tents in the Yellow Valley Base Camp!

Technical skills review in Timika!

Technical skills review in Timika!

Team dinner while we wait to fly to our base camp!

Team dinner while we wait to fly to our base camp!

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:

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Good to be back on Carstensz Pyramid!

The team together with Carstensz Pyramid in the background!

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!

The team on the summit of Carstensz Pyramid!

Expedition leader, Garrett and climber, Laura during the climb.

Expedition leader, Garrett and climber, Laura during the climb.

Descending back down the mountain.

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:

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Carstensz Pyramid Base Camp

Awesome news received from Indonesia, the team has arrived to Carstensz Pyramid Base Camp! The Madison Mountaineering expedition is underway after a volcano eruption near Bali had delayed the team’s departure. Yesterday the team flew to Timika in the Papua province by jet, then a quick helicopter ride to base camp. Weather is overcast with light rain reported. Our climbing team will be spending these first couple days acclimatizing to the altitude change. A team member on our expedition has backpacked in a DJI Phantom 3 drone, needless to say that we expect to receive some AMAZING content following this epic life adventure. More to come as this expedition progresses up the mountain!!

Attached is a audio dispatch received from our expedition leader, Joe Butler. At times the audio can be difficult to hear. I found the most effective way to listen was to play this audio on a louder sound system.

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