The Normal route (the summit climb)

There is effectively one climbing route on Carstensz, and it is the line Harrer's party pioneered in 1962: up the north face to the summit ridge, along the ridge over its notches (including the famous Tyrolean traverse) to the top, and then all the way back down by a long string of rappels. This section describes it stage by stage.

It is a rock climb, not a snow plod. You move on fixed ropes up steep, often wet limestone, you cross gaps on the ridge, and you rappel the whole descent. It is not desperately hard for a competent climber (the guides fix the ropes and manage the system) but it is a proper, committing climbing day, usually done in a single long push from Base Camp and back.

The route starts at Base Camp

This guide begins the climb at Base Camp, because that is where the climbing begins. How you get to Base Camp (the helicopter from the Timika area) is covered under Getting there now.

Base Camp today is in the Yellow Valley, on the flat ground directly under the north face, at about 4,270 m14,009 ft. That figure is a measurement and not a survey, because no survey of this camp exists: two independent terrain models and the median of seven climbers’ barometers agree on it to within six metres. You will see 4,200 m13,780 ft and 4,250 m13,944 ft quoted elsewhere. Camp spreads over a few hundred metres of ground, so all of those are describing the same place.

It has not always been there. Earlier parties camped in the next valley north, among the tarns at around 4,250 m13,944 ft, which is why you will still find Base Camp described as being “at the lakes”. The two are a walk apart: about 1.5 km on the old track, climbing east over a small col at roughly 4,340 m14,239 ft and dropping into the Yellow Valley. If an account you are reading starts summit day with an hour on foot before the face, that is the camp it means.

How the valley used to be reached

Everyone flies in now, and that is recent. Before the helicopters you walked: the Sugapa trek and the Ilaga trek, several days through jungle and river crossings each, and neither is a working option for climbers today. Both are covered under The approaches.

There was a third way in, and you can still make it out on any map of the area. The Freeport mine’s road climbs from Timika into the range (its upper end reachable from below by the mine’s own aerial tramway, a 1.3 km cable car lifting from 2,880 m9,449 ft to 3,566 m11,699 ft) and the mapped road runs out at about 3,930 m12,894 ft, some 2.7 km west-north-west of Base Camp. From there a footpath, 4.15 km of it mapped, runs east up the valley of tarns, over the col and down to Base Camp: roughly 5 km on foot and about 340 m1,115 ft of net climb, a couple of hours rather than a week. A handful of expeditions were granted permission over the years and walked in that way. It was never something you could plan around (this is private mine territory in a sensitive security environment, and access was rare and unpredictable) and it is history rather than an option, but it remains the shortest line to this mountain anyone has ever had. See The Freeport mine road.

A long day, not a series of camps

Unlike the higher 7 summits with their string of camps, Carstensz is usually climbed as one big day: up before dawn from Base Camp, up the face, along the ridge to the summit, and back down to Base Camp, often eleven hours or more round trip. So the "stages" below are parts of a single push, not separate days. Read them together as the shape of summit day.

A short documentary cut of summit day on Carstensz Pyramid, with footage of the fixed-rope sections, the notches and the crossing itself, plus maps and topos of the route.

See also: The skills this route demands: The rock skills you need