North side of Carstensz Pyramid from the air. Hall and Ball archive - Hedgehog House

Rising like a shark’s fin out of the mist of a jungle far below, 16,023-foot Carstensz Pyramid is the highest peak in Australasia and one of the most remote of the ‘Seven Summits.’ It stands in the Jayawijaya Mountain Range, a limestone protrusion that spans the equatorial island of New Guinea from Irian Jaya (formerly Dutch New Guinea) in the west, through to Papua New Guinea in the east. The mountain was first climbed in the 1960s and has seen relatively few ascents since then.

This AAI/Adventure Consultants expedition approaches the mountain by flying from Jakarta to the high country town of Timika in Western Papua. We overnight in a hotel and spend the following day exploring the area before boarding a helicopter the next morning. Our flight takes us to Zebra Wall (12,140’) where we camp for two nights to acclimatize. Enjoying surroundings of exotic vegetation and limestone cliffs, we then make the short trek to Base Camp with the help of the local Dani people carrying loads.

We will climb the mountain via its north face following a route that offers excellent climbing on coarse limestone while varying from easy scrambling to a few steeper pitches up to 5.8 which can be either climbed free or jumared. Additionally, while the razorback summit ridge is technically straightforward, it is very exposed in places. Expedition guides will fix ropes to provide good security on the ascent and to speed our decent before the typical afternoon precipitation reaches us. If time and weather permit, we will also climb Naga Pulu, the second highest summit of Australasia. This is a day-climb which includes a little snow and ice, a short section of easy rock climbing, and a finish on easy snow slopes to the summit.