To Base Camp in the A.M.

Heading to Base Camp in the a.m.

Today we awoke at 5:30 a.m. to join the other team as they departed in the helicopter to the Base Camp. it is a two hour flight by helicopter. Their flight finally left at 7:00 a.m. They are two Austrians and one guide named Poxi. Also in the helicopter is the pilot, co-pilot and the mechanic. They will return from base camp immediately to pick up the base camp manager, named Meldy. He will fly to base camp with the food and gear that could not be loaded on the first helicopter (if the weather is good enough to fly a second trip).

The weight in the helicopter is very important as we fly to the basecamp at 14,400 ft. We are now packing our gear and the plan is that we will fly to basecamp in the morning. We will weigh everything, including ourselves to make sure that we don’t have too much weight. We’ve minimized every bit of gear possible.

Right now we have our small Jansport packs, climbing helmets, headlamps, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, warm clothes, gloves, some bars, Hammer Supplements, Hammer Gel, FRS Gels, cameras, video camera, dry socks and rain ponchos. That’s literally about everything.

The guides will have cooking equipment, food and tents and we’ll get water from the glacier. Amazing we are here on the Equator and there is a glacier on this mountain and hard to sit here in this humidity and muggy weather and pack for what we know will be cold.

Our plan is to fly to basecamp ready to hike. Once we land we will situate our gear at the camp, say hello to the Austrian’s and hopefully congratulate them on their summit. Then we will begin the hike. 45 min hike on the trail to the rock, then fixed ropes all the way to the summit. Meldy has shown us some pictures of the mountain including a 50 ft tyrolean traverse (that means a rope that is stretched across a gulley we connect ourselves to the rope with our climbing harness and carabiners and slide across and/or pull ourselves across the rope.) The good thing is that stuff like this will give us plenty of time to take pictures and video.

The guides say the fastest they have done the mountain is 7 hours (base camp to base camp) and generally it’s about 10 hours round trip if you are moving at a good pace. If we manage to start hiking by 10 a.m. we’ll probably do the last bit down in the dark, depending on how we move on the ropes.

Jordan is prepared and technical stuff like this usually brings out the best in him. He stays focused and interested and he enjoys the responsibility of managing his rope gear.

We’re hoping for good weather so this plan all comes together. Bad weather can throw a wrench at anything, but we have plan B, plan C, plan D and plan E ready to go. Jordan’s is cheering for Plan A because that means he’ll get a day or two at the beach in Bali before we return to the states. Once we leave here in the a.m. our only contact will be the SPOT. We’ll put it on tracking mode so you can follow the whole climb. In that mode it will send a signal every 10 minutes.

Send good wishes to our friends on the mountain (Andy and Andres) and we will be there soon. Jordan’s using this down time to work on homework. He’s almost done reading the Hobbit and we did a couple hours of Algebra yesterday. He’s learned to convert weight in pounds to kilograms quite quickly as we are preparing for the helicopter (nothing like doing Math like your life depends on it – don’t worry we’re checking his number )

K and P and J

P and K didn’t know each other was making a blog entry…so this is Paul’s! A little different twist and more exageration. I can’t resist.

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Day 2, August 29-

Apologies for no photos posted as I promised, our internet connection is the equivalent of to cans and a string. Will try for photos asap.

On just our 3^rd day, we’ve gotten into a bit of a grove, as much as you can on your second day in such a place. We ate tremendous calories at a lovely little Chinese Restaurant (a bit of a Chinese population here). During lunch we received a phone call with fantastic news that the helicopter has received the part, and was about to be test flown. We hurried our lunch and went straight to the pilots home. We’d heard this pilot has stopped communication with our guide team here, but I’m quite sure they had bugged him for too many answers during the time of uncertainty here. There was a hold up at customs for a part being flown in from ‘abroad’. Anyhow, we pull up to the biggest home in town, a 2 story, gaudy pink place with 3m/10’ high fence and security. In just a matter of moments, we are welcomed in and sitting on a gorgeous tile patio with our new friend and pilot, Heru. The finest tea and coffee come next, as we swap some small talk about his helicopter experience and the likely hood that we will contract malaria and go insane, fortunately the later will happen when we are in the comforts of our home in California.
Heru is a man in his 50’s, on the verge of retiring from this pilot business. A back ground in oil rig and other civilian aviation, he’s very very seasoned. These are the best pilots to have. They have seen it all, and they cut NO corners as they have gotten this far and are not far from retiring. They are QUICK to say no and abort a mission in the name of safety. Despite climbing schedules and such, you want this kind of conservative mentality. MORE good news arrives as we finish coffee, and the first test flights are going well. It looks like GREEN LIGHT for tomorrow. Reminder, the other team (the Austrian’s of Andy and Joseph) have priority. They will be on the 6am, then second guide and 100kg of supplies will go with second flight.
Evening rolls around, and we end it all with a dinner and fresh juice at a restaurant with a deck actually over the water. Locals are enjoying karaoke and we are the only customers of this late our. There is not a breeze, stars are out, and it’s just the sound of water lapping up against the sand. Hardly even a wave. We had a great conversation with our ‘local/city’ guide Patric (he’s from Jakarta). He explains some more of the local culture and traditions here, and we continue to scratch our head in confusion. There is just some very odd things about here. We’ve NOT seen a bicycle. Not one. Everyone is on scooters, nice ones. Or walking. It’s flat, and the roads are quite decent, perfect for bikes. Not one to be found. Again, no other tourists, or caucasions. Not one.

Day 3- Jordan sleeps for 12+ hours, (oh to be 13 again), and K and I actually get 9 hours. Nice air condition keeps us comfortable all night, and we rise with the Austrians to go and see them off at the airport. 5am, sun is peaking up, temperature really does not even dip down, and tea and biscuit is brought to our room. It’s the usual last minute chaos of weighing gear, taking inventory, phone calls…I grab Andy’s video camera and film them leaving their hotel room and getting into the car for the 300meter drive to the airport.

We’re permitted to pull right onto the runway, along side the legendary Bell 212 Helicopter that has hauled many climbers to this mystical outcropping in the middle of the jungle. Pilot Mr. Heru and his co pilot Addy (I think) are there, smiling, pleased to be going. A last minute snafu in that the fuel truck was about 30 minutes late to top off the tanks. That’s handled, then more fun.

Seems a man from the mountains, apparently some ranking officer in the bush police, has a major problem with us, our helicopter and our mission to climb. We’d heard about some of this, but here it was…right in front of us. A man in his 40’s, sorta acting drunk, I can’t be sure….but he was on a mission to make everyone know that he strongly objected to what was happening. He was screaming, every vein on his head was bursting, and only until airport security pulled him away, did our nerves calm a bit. I was specifically watching our pilot who just glared at this man. He was a bit offended, confused and wanted him far away from his helicopter. After just 5 minutes or so, things are cool, and both jet engines are fired up and the Austrians are on their way east, to the mountains. It’s about a 2 hour flight to the 4100m/14,000’ base camp. Weather is good/clear. We make last minute fine tuning of our gear, getting everything down to absolute minimum weight. We are 250kg’s in total for us 3.. Food/Packs/Climbing gear/sleeping bags/OUR weight/camara’s. The Austrians were 220kg for 2 persons; if you know us, you know we can go light.

This MAY be the last posting before radio silence and our climb. Trust you will get news asap. SPOT tracking is perhaps the best bet to get earliest news, but we’ve learned we are on border coverage for SPOT. So that is 50/50.

Going fast, taking chances