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Carstensz Pyramid

Mountain Madness
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  • Overview
  • Itinerary
  • Inclusions
  • Reviews

EXOTIC HIGH ALTITUDE ROCK ASCENT

Locat­ed on the island of Papua in New Guinea Carsten­sz Pyra­mid is the high­est island peak in the world and one of the Sev­en Sum­mits. Ris­ing above the dense jun­gle that guards the approach, this remote, lime­stone peak offers excit­ing and chal­leng­ing rock climb­ing and is the only one of the Sev­en Sum­mits to require tech­ni­cal rock climb­ing. The jun­gle sur­round­ing Carsten­sz is home to the Dani peo­ple, as well as many oth­er indi­vid­ual tribes, and is a very chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ment to nav­i­gate. Inter-trib­al pol­i­tics and con­flicts, dif­fi­cult jun­gle trails, the humid­i­ty and some­times extreme weath­er com­bine to make a trek into Carsten­sz very chal­leng­ing. Recent­ly the avail­abil­i­ty of reli­able heli­copter ser­vice has made an ascent of Carsten­sz much more prac­ti­cal as well as elim­i­nat­ing the chal­lenges and dan­gers of a long jun­gle trek. Even with­out the jun­gle trek this is one of the most remark­able places left to trav­el on earth. With a com­bi­na­tion of excel­lent climb­ing, oth­er­world­ly loca­tions and the unique, exot­ic cul­ture of the Dani peo­ple, Carsten­sz Pyra­mid Climb is tru­ly one of our most fas­ci­nat­ing adven­tures in one of the wildest remain­ing places on the planet. 

Locat­ed at lat­i­tude 4 degrees and 5 min­utes south by 137 degrees and 11 min­utes east lon­gi­tude in the west­ern cen­tral high­lands of New Guinea, the sec­ond largest island after Green­land, 16,023-foot / 4884-meter Carsten­sz Pyra­mid is the high­est peak on the Ocea­nia con­ti­nent and one of the sev­en summits.

With heli­copter access, this oth­er­wise inac­ces­si­ble peak is made read­i­ly avail­able. After a short flight from the town of Timi­ka, the team arrives in base camp and reviews skills and accli­ma­tize before an ear­ly start of the climb.

From the mag­i­cal base camp that is sur­round­ed by alpine lakes we have easy access to the peak. Our climb of Carsten­sz Pyra­mid con­sists of mod­er­ate rock climb­ing over most­ly sol­id, white lime­stone and is com­plet­ed in one long day from our base­camp in the Val­ley of Lakes. The climb is nev­er extreme­ly dif­fi­cult but has sev­er­al tech­ni­cal sec­tions that require both the famil­iar­i­ty of mechan­i­cal ascen­ders and being com­fort­able on steep, exposed ter­rain. On our way to the sum­mit we will encounter sev­er­al rap­pels and ascend short sec­tions of near ver­ti­cal rock. The climb­ing along the sum­mit ridge is a dis­tinct plea­sure with high expo­sure and inter­est­ing climb­ing on easy to mod­er­ate fifth class rock.

From the sum­mit we will have incred­i­ble views of Ngga Pulu and its rapid­ly retreat­ing glac­i­ers, the bril­liant white lime­stone tow­ers of the Sudirman Moun­tains, the turquoise lakes of the Meren Val­ley and on a clear day all the way to the coast of New Guinea.

Itinerary

Flight Information

The total num­ber of days for your trip includes all trav­el to and from your des­ti­na­tion, with some excep­tions. Please call our office to con­firm that your flight itin­er­ary is cor­rect. For this trip you will need to arrive in Den­pasar, Bali in Indone­sia. The cap­i­tal city, Den­pasar, is locat­ed on the east coast of the Island of Bali and is known for its white sandy beach­es and offers a great stopover on the way to Carsten­sz or on your return home. From Den­pasar you will fly to Timika.

This trip neces­si­tates an overnight flight from the U.S. begin­ning on day 1 of the itin­er­ary. You will cross the date­line in mid-flight to Asia thus los­ing a day. Don’t wor­ry, you’ll make it up on the way home. Your return flight will take 2 days to arrive back home. Book your return flight to leave Timi­ka to Den­pasar, Indone­sia on day 17 and on to your home city. 

Please con­tact our office for any help need­ed with flight schedule.

Carstensz Pyramid Day by Day

Day 1

TRAV­EL

Trav­el to Den­pasar, Bali.

Day 2

DEN­PASAR

Moun­tain Mad­ness staff will meet you at the air­port. You will trans­fer to your hotel

Day 3

DEN­PASAR

We will spend Day 3 hav­ing a team meet­ings and doing equip­ment checks in prepa­ra­tion for our ear­ly morn­ing flight to Papua. We wrap up last minute paper­work and secure our per­mit with the Indone­sian gov­ern­ment. Wel­come din­ner with the team.

Day 4

PAPUA

We fly to West Papua and trans­fer to our hotel. Flights are gen­er­al­ly ear­ly morn­ing which gives us the rest of the day to pre­pare for our morn­ing heli­copter flight to base camp.

Day 5

CARSTEN­SZ BASE CAMP

We’ll get an ear­ly start, depend­ing on weath­er, for the heli­copter flight to base camp.

Day 6

CARSTEN­SZ BASE CAMP

Acclima­ti­za­tion. Spend the day at base camp accli­ma­tiz­ing to the alti­tude and prepar­ing for the sum­mit climb.

Day 7

SUM­MIT PUSH


We’re off to the sum­mit! The route is rel­a­tive­ly straight­for­ward and fol­lows a line up the north face. After scram­bling approx­i­mate­ly 1,640 feet / 500 meters over most­ly sol­id rock we will break out on the sum­mit ridge where lines will be fixed in prepa­ra­tion for our descent. Our route here fol­lows the ridge crest with grand expo­sure along the way. We pass four small notch­es as we rap­pel and use ascen­ders to nego­ti­ate these tricky sec­tions. Our descent entails mul­ti­ple rap­pels and scram­bling. We will be on good, clean rock that pro­vides excel­lent fric­tion even in wet weath­er. This will be a long, dif­fi­cult day of 12 – 18 hours roundtrip.

Day 8-10

EXTRA WEATH­ER DAYS

These extra days are to allow for a bet­ter weath­er win­dow or extra days for acclima­ti­za­tion if needed.

Day 11

TIMI­KA

Carsten­sz base­camp to Timi­ka. Morn­ing heli­copter flight to Timi­ka. Hotel in Timika

Day 12

DEN­PASAR

We fly back to Den­pasar, Bali and our hotel where we will cel­e­brate our expedition. 

Day 13

FLY HOME

Heli­copter flights are sub­ject to weath­er delays, some­times last­ing sev­er­al days. We allow con­tin­gency days to accom­mo­date delays. It is strong­ly advised that you allow a delay of up to one week should an extend­ed delay occur.

Note on Itin­er­ary: Although we do our very best to fol­low the sched­ule list­ed, this itin­er­ary is sub­ject to change due to inclement weath­er, unsafe route con­di­tions, or oth­er rea­sons beyond our con­trol and in the guide’s best judgement.

Inclusion/Exclusions
Inclusions

  • Guide
  • Carsten­sz Pyra­mid per­mit and envi­ron­men­tal fees
  • Indone­sian gov­ern­ment roy­al­ty fees
  • Two sched­uled hotel nights in Den­pasar, Bali (dou­ble occupancy)
  • Two sched­uled hotel nights in Timi­ka, West Papua (dou­ble occupancy)
  • Restau­rant meals as indi­cat­ed in itinerary
  • Round-trip heli­copter trans­port to/​from base camp
  • All food dur­ing the climb
  • All group gear at base camp and on the climb.
  • Air­port trans­fers and all sched­uled land trans­port in West Papua

Exclusions

  • Inter­na­tion­al air­fare to Indonesia
  • Indone­sia entry visa and air­port fees
  • Trav­el insur­ance with trip can­cel­la­tion, med­ical and evac­u­a­tion policy
  • Per­son­al climb­ing gear and clothing
  • Per­son­al expens­es (phone calls, laun­dry, room ser­vice, extra hotel nights, extra meals, etc.)
  • Alco­holic and bot­tled beverages
  • Excess bag­gage on domes­tic flights (44 lb / 20 kg limit)

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Mountain Madness
Est. 1984
Expedition Information
Price
$22,900
Months
October, November 13 Days
Activity
Climbing
Fitness Level 3
Technical Level 5
Guide:Client ratio 1 : 4
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Continent: Australasia/Oceania
Country: Indonesia
Location: Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya)
Elevation: 4,884m/16,024ft
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$22,900
Expand for Expedition Information
Mountain Madness
Est. 1984
Expedition Information
Price
$22,900
Months
October, November 13 Days
Activity
Climbing
Fitness Level 3
Technical Level 5
Guide:Client ratio 1 : 4
Message Guide
Send
Expand location information
Continent: Australasia/Oceania
Country: Indonesia
Location: Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya)
Elevation: 4,884m/16,024ft
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Share
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