The Seventy Summits: Life in the Mountains

CARSTENSZ PYRAMID

Another name for Carstensz Pyramid is Puncak Jaya, though westerners do not generally use it. If not for Canadian Pat Morrow’s own quest for a slightly different Seven Summits, probably five total mountaineers in the entire world would have heard of Carstensz Pyramid.

No one thought of Oceania, or Austral-Asia, as a continent. Until Dick Bass’s success on his Seven Summits journey, no mountaineers cared about Mount Kosciuszko either. It was too insignificant a bump on the terrain to bother with. Then it gained full-fledged notoriety as one of the Seven Summits, stoking international interest.

Carstensz Pyramid is a whole different animal. It rises 16,024 feet above sea level, compared to Kosciuszko’s 7,310. It is in a remote location, and much more challenging to climb. Carstensz is situated on the island of New Guinea in the West Papua region of Indonesia. It is the tallest peak between the Himalayas in Asia and the Andes in South America.

A nearby neighbor is an industrial giant, the Grasberg Mine, the largest gold mine in the world, as well as the third largest copper mine. Grasberg is less than three miles away from the mountain and is a gigantic operation employing about 19,500 people. This sometimes can create complications for mountaineers who are focused on the outdoors and the environment and the mine owners who jealously guard their wealth-producing site.

Carstensz Pyramid was named for a Dutch explorer named Jan Carstenszoon. Carstenszoon first identified the peak in 1623. When he returned to Europe and reported the findings of his journey and told people he saw snow near the equator, nobody believed him. There are actually three summits close together near the top of the mountain.

The three peaks are East Pyramid, Ngga Pulu, and Carstensz. However, in an unusual twist, when a Dutch team sought to climb the highest point in 1936, it was Ngga Pulu. Later glacier melt diminished its size, leaving Carstensz as the highest point.

Partially slowed by bad weather, the Dutch expedition climbed the other two high points, but not Carstensz. It was not until 1962 that Carstensz was first climbed. One member of that group was Heinrich Harrer, the mountaineer who was the focus of the movie Seven Years in Tibet, who made several impressive first ascents during his career. Harrer also wrote a book about Carstensz Pyramid.

A year after that inaugural ascent, the Indonesian government changed the name to Sukarno Peak to honor the national leader. Still later the name was altered again, this time to Puncak Jaya, translated as Victory Peak. However, that switch never caught on in the mountaineering world.

An individual cannot simply show up to climb Carstensz. The government controls permits, and awards them to adventure travel companies for a fee. Between 1995 and 2005, the government shut down the mountain to climbing.

Initially, Vern Tejas was not attracted to climbing the Carstensz Pyramid. He completed his Seven Summits with Kosciuszko and was satisfied with that. Later, however, he decided he should climb Carstensz to make sure he covered all of his bases for eight summits, just in case the issue was ever called into question about the true Seven Summits.

Tejas has since reached the summit of Carstensz Pyramid three times.

To begin climbing Carstensz Pyramid, you fly to what used to be called New Guinea, but which some call West Papua now. The only reason why Indonesia wanted to annex New Guinea is because of the gold and copper deposits they are mining right next to the mountain.

The mine area is huge. It has eaten up other mountains. If Carstensz did not have the designation as being the tallest, they probably would have blasted all of the way through it to get the mineral deposits beneath it. Carstensz has been spared that. The mining industry is hard-rock mining from the inside out. Carstensz is the national symbol, the highest thing in the country, so they really can’t destroy it. Other former mountains, next-door neighbors, are now lakes.

One way or another, that area certainly produces income, whether it is from mining or tourism. The mine is the biggest taxpayer in the entire country, and the government protects the miners. Government officials do not want environmentalist climbers going in there and taking photographs of the environmental travesty going on. They don’t want bad press. The mine is linked up to the highest officials and the military. The top people in government are very protective of the mine.

The mountaineers are supposed to just slide by the operations and maintain the peace. The last time I was there, we accidentally ruffled the miners’ feathers pretty good, though.

Carstensz Pyramid got ramped up on competitive people’s lists who didn’t think climbing Kosciuszko was sufficient. It’s a hard climb. You need some rock climbing skills, and you need to be comfortable with fixed ropes. It is more technical than the other seven mountains. Still, some people are doing one Seven Summit, and some people are doing the other. It’s like 7A and 7B. I’ve done all eight of the Seven Summits. There are not any bones to pick, but you could hear someone saying later you didn’t do the real thing.

The main route up Carstensz is actually the most technical of the Seven Summits. It involves quite a bit of technique. I heard that there has been a three-strand cable bridge installed where the Tyrolean traverse used to be. The mountain is only 16,024 feet high and the climb begins at 14,000 feet. You’re only going 2,000 vertical feet to get to the summit. It is technical, but the elevation gain is not difficult.

The route is a zig-zag, so you can ascend pretty quickly. It’s not straight up. A typical climb takes a day. Of course, you have to be acclimated so you don’t get turned back by the altitude right away. The guys who are doing the Seven Summits can face a problem unless they are acclimated. You should be pre-acclimated. That’s an advantage. The climb is just in and out, but still, you can have problems up high–lightning, hypothermia and rock fall, to name a few.

When climbers reach the actual summit point of Carstensz Pyramid they can be in for a surprise. It is pretty small. Mount Vinson’s summit spot is very small, as well. It’s kind of got a ramp, but the top is rocky. You can fit maybe four people on the summit of Carstensz at once. Most people never step on it. They step all around it, but not on it because it is just a point. I have put my foot on it.

Carstensz Pyramid, Oceania’s tallest mountain, is difficult to reach and even more difficult to climb at 16,024 feet high

Doing Carstensz the long way, with the trek, means you absorb more culture, although the culture may not always be friendly. I don’t think I want to get an arrow in my butt. The local Mani and Dani Tribes often block the way, extorting you for money. I can do without going through the jungle when it is wet, slippery, infested with bugs, and falling down, coping with landslides and near-hypothermia. Really, I can. It’s good to do it that way once, for sure. Now that I have done it three times, I look forward to going to the mountain by helicopter.

Of course, I am not sure I wish to return there after my 2013 trip if anybody is going to remember me. The mine personnel, for instance, could remember me because I exited from the mountain through the mine.

He was an ill-clad older man, and the weather turned. The porters don’t dress warmly because it is much warmer where they live twenty-five miles away. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and we were high up in elevation and the rain turned to blowing sleet and it got icy. It was a miserable day. The porters live at about 7,000 feet, but we were up to 14,000 feet. It turned to mixed snow and rain. It was colder than the area where the porters lived. They hunt at high elevation, but they don’t go out in weather like that. They only go if the weather is good, so he did not have experience in the cold. He got hypothermia, which he had no knowledge of, so he did not know that he was dying or why he was dying.

We hadn’t even hired him directly. He bought his way onto the trip for the work. He bought someone else’s employment to have extra money. We had twenty porters on the trip carrying equipment.

So the man died in my employ, making me responsible for him. In that region over there it is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. As soon as the man died I called our office in Seattle and said, “We’ve got an issue.” I told them, “Please figure this one out. We’re going to finish the climb, but as soon as we finish we want to know what we’re supposed to do.” I called back and my orders were to cut through the mine. I said, “It’s illegal.” They said, “Go through the mine. We don’t want you going through the jungle with the natives. You might not make it to the other side.”

There were five of us and we tried to exit through the mining territory. They had their reasons why they didn’t want westerners passing through the mine. I was the western guide and we had a local guide and assistant. The local guide and assistant got off the hook for going through the mine. The rest of us, me and my climbers, were detained and told, “No, you can’t cross through the mine.” So we sat at the edge of the operation for four days.

In the meantime, Todd Burleson, the Alpine Ascents boss in Seattle, was trying to reach Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. The Department of State got involved. The Department of Transportation got involved. They were working the phones and trying to resolve the impasse.

Alpine Ascents got the climbers’ wives involved, too, calling their representatives. They called and told the officials, “We’ve got an international incident going down.”

They seemed to have a policy that if anyone was trying to flaunt the rule against crossing through the mine, they kept them waiting for a week. They just didn’t want people crossing their land. They did not want trespassing. Trekking out through the jungle only took four days, so they figured most people would give up and exit through the jungle. In this case, we were warned not to go through the jungle, so we were going to sit it out. We held out hope that they would eventually give us crossing permission. They did so in about three-and-a-half days.

Finally, the security guys for the mine came over and got us. They were carrying machine guns and said, “Get in the car. You are going to talk to the head of security.” That guy was from Louisiana, and I was able to build a little rapport because I grew up in Texas. We chatted. “Hey, how are you doing?” “I’ve got a brother in New Orleans.” I told the guy I owned 1,000 shares in the company because I had been following their prospects. I said, “I like the company.” I am not sure what kind of credential that was, but it was better than nothing. He knew I was basically a small fish. I was kind of casually suggesting he not get too hard-ass on me. But sometimes shareholders showed up, so it didn’t carry that much weight. Fortunately, he didn’t come down too hard on us. They made us put on flak jackets and helmets to drive out just in case there was an incident on the way.

The security people took us to the community of Timika, but did not just abandon us there. They warned us to check into a hotel and stay inside. “You are getting on the plane tomorrow,” we were informed. They didn’t want us seen on the streets because they felt we might be a target of revenge on behalf of the porter. That was the last time I went to Carstensz Pyramid. I will go back, but I will have to go by chopper.

Carstensz seems a lot more interesting to me now because it’s like I have a price on my head. Also, with those helicopters you can fly over the jungle and the mine. I wouldn’t have to deal with the locals. It would be so much cleaner avoiding all of the hassle. No imbroglio.

Overall, the trip was getting to be a zoo there. Bribery is rampant. The rebels wanted a cut. Local chiefs wanted a cut. And everybody along the trail through the jungle wanted their cut. A guy comes up to us with a machete standing at one end of a vine bridge going across a river. He says, “My brother built this bridge. You can’t cross it. He told me to make sure nobody crosses it unless they pay.” He’s saying it’s not really him, but it’s his brother who is the asshole, right?

We stood there and negotiated for two hours. I didn’t have any money for a bribe. So the local guide eventually opens up his backpack and hands the guy enough money to buy five cartons of cigarettes so we could cross. This was happening over and over again for the first few days of the trek.

It wasn’t that surprising. When my climbers landed in Bali, I met them and provided a briefing. I told them the trip would be fun, but they had to be really tolerant and smile a lot. Don’t give anybody any money. Don’t get riled up with anybody. At one point, we were on motorcycles and a tree was down in the road. We figured we could just move the tree out of the way. But no, there was a guy there with a bow and arrow who didn’t want us to move the tree until we paid him. You’re moving a tree so you’re sitting ducks.

When we got to a village, we paid people for staying in a room. They could have called it a toll, but this was an exchange, making it a little bit more civil. They were not extorting money from us. They were renting us a place to stay.

The rate of payouts slowed down when the number of people diminished along the route. But it was heavy duty baksheesh the first day-and-a-half. Baksheesh is a tip or a bribe or the cost of doing business. Once, I stepped over a little pig fence. Everyone there was raising pigs. I looked up and there was this little lady with a paring knife in my face going, “That’s going to cost you.”

In the beginning, you are crossing through a jungle and that’s where you see the people. Maybe next time I should bring some pigs for bribes. They’re very valuable. As you go higher you cut through a rain forest and get wet. There were no wild animal threats to us. The people had pretty much killed everything for food. We were above the crocodile line. Crocodiles were down low. We were above the mosquito line, so we didn’t get bitten and catch malaria. We were above the leech line, too.

It’s a real adventure. There were some people with bones through their noses. The only other place I saw such things was in National Geographic magazine. One guy was a classic. He had a bird through his nose. The beak was over here and the tail on the other side. It was a show-stopper. The girls turned their heads. “Oh, he has a bird in his nose. Wow!” You go, “OK, that’s wild.” I see a lot of body piercings on the streets of New York City, so I am used to it, but I have yet to see anyone else with a bird piercing.

These people are like a half a generation removed from cannibalism. Some may be wearing that penis gourd. Others are walking around wearing New York Yankees T-shirts. Probably the missionaries provided them. People ship boatloads of clothes over there. Otherwise they would be basically naked, and I guess the missionaries don’t like to look at naked bodies.

The people are supposed to all be happy. I heard they have sex any time they want. The women wear grass skirts. Maybe they used to always go topless, but they switched to baseball team T-shirts. In one generation, they have gone from eating one another to only occasionally killing one another without eating them. That’s progress. They eat a lot of pigs. That’s why they are so valuable. The pigs are what they’ve got because they hunted out all of the other wild game.

I would like to go back and climb the second highest mountain there. Who knows what day that will be?

At this point, I have probably visited fifty countries to climb mountains. When I get my passport stamped, I just hope the marks don’t take up too much of a page. I have run out of passport space before and obtained extra pages while abroad. I also try to get passports renewed overseas. It’s cheaper than it is to get it done in the United States. The last time I renewed, I did it in Greece.