Video from our expedition

Images from Carstensz

Andre, just below the summit

Mike on rappel

Matsumoto, sampling Mike's "Moet and Chandon" on the summit.

Mr. Kuo hiking above the "Third Lake"

Todd Rutledge, on the summit ridge

Congratulations to Everyone!

Mike Nixon and Andre Bredencamp on the summit of Carstensz Pyramid,
thus completeing their Seven Summits!

Greetings from the beautiful Padma Bali Hotel on Legian Beach, Bali.

We had a wonderfully successful expedition to Carstensz Pyramid, with some interesting and exciting developments along the way.

Congratulations to Mike Nixon and Andre Bredencamp who completed the last of the seven summits on August 23rd!!!! Tatsuo Matsumoto and Yu-Cheng Kuo also reached the summit.

We started up the route with amazingly warm temperatures, climbing to the summit ridge in our base layer tops. The first major obstacle was the chasm known as the "1st gap", which we passed via a Tyrolean traverse. After this point, we made quick work of the remaining summit ridge and climbed to the top just as some snow began to fall. We shared the summit with two friends from Malaysia and one Indonesian climber.

The weather became increasingly wet as we descended and many of our rappels off the summit ridge were made down varying degrees of waterfalls.

As we reached the Tyrolean traverse, a group of Indonesians, including a film crew from a popular TV station, were still heading up to the summit. Due to the late hour and deteriorating weather, we advised them to reconsider their plan, but they insisted on continuing to the top. When we reached Basecamp, the director of the film crew frantically asked us to return to the mountain to help his team, which he described as being in dire straits.

After 17 hours on the go, we were in no condition to go back up, and I felt that the weather was not so bad that it posed a real threat to the lives of the crew. We opted to rest for the night in order to recharge our reserves so that we could initiate a proper rescue in the morning.

First light saw us up and preparing for the hike back to the peak. When we arrived we found that some of the climbers had been able to descend through the night and were making the final rappel to terra firma. Three of the Indonesian film crew were still high on the mountain, apparently unable to descend.

Mike, Andre and I climbed up a dozen pitches of the route and found the crew. They were cold, wet and hungry, but had no serious physical impairments. Two of them suffered from AMS and we treated them, got them into warm, dry clothes and began the long descent. One of the crew, a female news presenter from Jakarta, was unable to descend on her own, so I made 12 tandem rappels with her in order to get her off the route. Mike and Andre were invaluable during the rescue process and the three of us made efficient work of getting the three Indonesians back to the ground.

The following morning we all made our way back to Timika and Mike, Andre, Matsumoto, Kuo and I all flew strait to Bali. Mr. Kuo took charge of our dining that evening at a Chinese seafood restaraunt and the rest of us had our cultural horizons broadened with plate after plate of prawns, fish, crabs, eel and turtle soup.

What and adventure....

Rescue a success!

Todd, Andre and Mike were able to help the injured climbers safely reach base camp. They plan to eat, sleep, and get ready for the trip to Tamika. Hopefully with any luck, they'll be in Bali by tomorrow night.

Back at base, but not for long.

Todd called tonight (their morning) and said that everyone on the Mountain Trip team has summitted and are safely back in basecamp. Congratulations to Andre and Mike for completing their goal of climbing the 7 summits.

There are two injured Indonesian climbers on another team, who did not summit and spent the night on the mountain. Todd, Andre and Mike, after a few hours of much needed rest and refeuling, will go back up the mountain today to help with their descent. The MT team will be heading back to Timika the following day (tomorrow night).

M.T. on top of Carstensz

Todd called via satellite phone to report that they were at the summit! It has been a "glorious day" with no rain - the first in several days. For Andre Bredencamp and Mike Nixon it is their seventh summit!!! Congratulations on reaching the highest peaks of the world. To celebrate, they opened a bottle of very nice champagne to share before heading down.

Zebra Wall

The team has arrived in climbing country! Zebra Wall is the first camp of the expedition. The details about getting there are a company secret. Sorry to be vague, but all that can be published is that they received safe, legal, overland transport. Now the fun begins.