Approaching the route in May, 2007After two and a half years of negotiating, we have assurances that we will be allowed to legally drive to our Advanced Base Camp at a spot called Zebra Wall. We are cautiously optimistic that this will still be the case when we arrive on the island of Papua; but all current indications are in favor of such an approach.
The expedition members include:
Andre Bredencamp and Mike Nixon from South Africa- Mike and Andre have climbed with us in Antarctica. A successful Carstensz summit will complete the coveted "Seven Summits" for these climbers!
Tatsuo Matsumoto from Brazil- "Matsumoto" has been on three expeditions with Mountain Trip and is looking to complete his fifth of the Seven Summits.
Yu-Cheng Kou from Taiwan- "Mr. Kou" has been on two other Mountain Trip expeditions and is hoping to stand on top of his fifth of the Seven Summits.
Todd Rutledge will lead the expedition. I climbed Carstensz last May and am excited to go back. This is a really fun climb, in a wild and dramatic landscape.
Carstensz Pyramid is known in some native tongues as "Puncak Jaya." It rises 16,023 above the second largest virgin tropical rainforest on the planet and lies about 4 degrees below the Equator. It is a limestone peak that is mostly devoid of vegetation despite the lush forests surrounding the region. Interestingly, remnant glaciers still exist on its South Face of this mountain and larger ones cover the south side of neighboring Ngapulu Jaya.
Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea and was formerly known as Iryan Jaya. It is home to some 245 different indigenous tribes , each speaking its own language. The diversity of language on the island is so widespread that it is home to about 15% of the world's languages.
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