Day 4- Our day to go to the mountain.
4am wake up, gear is prepped and first cup of tea is had before the roosters wake. Weather check is ‘iffy’, our staff is on the phone continuously as the reports from the mountain are low clouds and rain. We get paid a visit to our hotel room by the police chief, he sits and has tea with us. He arranged a visit with all the tribe leaders yesterday and assured them we were not geologists, that we were just climbers. The people remain skepticak, but obliged to not bother us. Still, extra reinforcements are brought in. We shuttle to the runway, at the first sign of light. Chopper is fueled, gear(including us) is weighed, pilot shows…and the first light shows the low/dark sporadic clouds. Pilot Heru assures me, ‘we’ll get there’, don’t worry. Reminder, an old pilot is a good pilot, he’s no dummy and does not need to take any chances just to get us to this silly climb.
We load up with out incident- Two pilots, our team of 3, and mechanic team of 3. We are 8 in total. 0610hr start, expecting 1 hour to arrive to base camp. 20 minutes in, we start up a canyon with giant walls of jungle on each side of us, 100’ from each side of the blades, and waterfalls spewing toward us from each direction. I feel like I’m in a video game. We land at a ‘village’ of 4 huts, and a family out to greet/see us. A quick hot (means they don’t shut down the engines) off load of the mechanics team, and we’re back up heading east…to the deepest darkest part of the interior of Papua. There is nothing but the wildest jungle on our planet, and it’s steep. An unplanned emergency landing, is…not to even be discussed. We venture east, and climbing. Clouds increase and visibility decreases. Before long, we are flying on instruments. This means, we are in whiteout conditions, and the pilots rely 100% on their instruments to navigate and keep the helo uprights. I don’t have verbal communication with the pilots, but I can tell they keep their cool. Jordan and I watch my altimeter , as we pass 9, 10, 11,000’. I grab his cool hooded Polartec fleece and put on his wind pants. Temperature is dropping quickly, as visibility does not improve. My Titanium Highgear Altis spins up to 14, 15, 16, then 17thousand feet.
Karen doing her work in the Helo
The pilots can not find a break in the weather. Imagine putting a blind fold on the helo. It’s what we’ve dealt with for 30 minutes now. I have been more than ready to head back to our base town.
Pilot looks over his shoulder to us in back, signals- with the cut across the neck- in other words- aborting the attempt. Back to Nabire. RELIEF and disappointment in one. They had hoped for a break right above the mines which they say hold a lot of heat, but today there was no break. Weather forecasts here are minimal. We’ll hope for good weather tomorrow.
The Austrians have summited and returned to base camp. Surely they heard us flying over with hopes that we would land and they could return to Bali. They will wait at basecamp until we come back tomorrow.
Till then, more school work for Jordan. He’s thrilled. More adventures to come….
The Helicopter Maintenance crew LOVED Jordan
We were watching Monday to see if you made it.
Thoughts are with you guys! Thanks for all the updates. Sounds like an amazing journey already. Love ya!