Excitement, anticipation, restlessness and waiting for the rain to let up a little bit kept me from sleeping until our scheduled wake-up call at 2:00 AM. Instead, I just lay down in my tent and rested as much as I could for our upcoming Summit bid. I headed to the dining tent at 2:30 AM […]
What was supposed to be a relatively short 6 to 7 hours climb to Base Camp ended being a gruesome 9 hours day. Despite the early and heavy morning rain, we got off to a good start and were moving along nicely when we noticed none of the porters were in sight or following along. […]
It’s getting exciting as we’re getting closer and closer to our destination. We are heading to Camp 5 and are two days away from Base Camp. We quickly packed up Camp 4 and started down a long and winding valley which we then climbed up the other side to beautiful clear views of the Jaya […]
We woke up early this morning hoping for an early start but we got delayed until 9:00 AM due to a brief strike by the porters. They felt they were pushed too hard the previous day for trekking 13 hours in difficult conditions and now they’re asking for more money. They also said they won’t […]
The word EPIC is used in many instances but I’m not even sure it is synonymous enough to describe today’s trek. As we are trying to reach Base Camp in 5 days instead of 6, we knew today would be a long and tough one but no one expected it to be as hard as it was! […]
We got up this morning hoping for an early start. While we were having a not so tasty breakfast of eggs and rice, the porters were still negotiating amongst themselves. We finally got under way shortly after 8:30 AM but after barely walking 100 yards down the village, we got stopped by one of the […]
Last night was an absolutely miserable one. I don’t know if it was the “pink” partially cooked chicken from yesterday’s lunch or the fact I made a rookie mistake in brushing my teeth using the tap water or from rinsing my face and mouth in the shower, but low and behold I’ve got a severe […]
We were supposed to be flying early this morning from Timika to Sugapa but got word that our chartered flight is unavailable or the plane is inadequate to carry all 7 passengers and luggage. We never got the real story except “no plane today, will have to wait until tomorrow”. So we got to spend […]
After clearing customs in Denpasar, Indonesia and arriving at the beautiful Sanur Beach Hotel in Bali around 6 PM local time, I met with my guide Scott Woolums from Mountain Trip. We were both hoping to spend some time at the resort and take the following day to rest on the Bali beaches but we […]
After over 49 hours of travel and barely 5 total hours of sleep, I’ve arrived on the Island of Papua to start my climb of Oceania’s highest peak, the Carstensz Pyramid. What they say about the logistics and difficulty reaching this mountain is all true. It’s going to be an epic adventure. Tomorrow morning we […]