The Shark Teeth Between You and Summiting Oceania’s Tallest Mountain

There are two lists of the Seven Summits, the best peak on each individual continent. The Bass Record, named soon after Richard (Dick) Bass, which includes Kosciuszko, the greatest peak in Australia, at 7,310 feet. The second listing is specifically the same as the initial checklist only it swaps the maximum peak in Australia for the maximum peak in Oceania, which takes place to be in Indonesia. This checklist recognized as the Messner List, named following famed mountaineer, Reinhold Messner. The Messner record incorporates Carstensz Pyramid, and it is the only pure rock climbing inside the Seven Summits.

In the excerpt underneath from her new memoir, To The Biggest Heights, we drop in to come across Vanessa O’Brien and her teammates navigating the dense jungles of New Guinea as they battle their way to reach the maximum peak in Oceania at 16,024 feet.

Working day three, the thick jungle cover safeguarded us rather from the rain as we slogged through the slippery mud puddles. I tried to land a huge move more than a log and heard the crotch of my rain trousers give way with a cartoonish rrrrrriiiiiiip. What could I do but carry on, mooning the individuals powering me? I was carrying a GoPro, but I experienced to delete a good deal of lush green footage that was almost nothing but me cursing and yelling profanities at whoever was listening. Scrambling up and about a fallen tree trunk, I yanked my boot out of the mud with this sort of drive that—fwock!—I smacked my brow versus an overhanging tree trunk with a dull, moist thud. I stumbled to my knees, stars reeling in front of my eyes.

“Oh my God!” Ruth and Andrea came jogging.

“Shit. Who place that tree there?” I tried out to engage in it off, laughing at first, then combating tears of pain and embarrassment.

“Vanessa, are you ok?” My teammates peeled me off the floor and picked bits of embedded bark from my brow.

“I’m great. I’m great.”

I was not great. Each and every portion of my human body felt shocked and soggy and hurting. My pants were being ripped, my clothing ended up whole of mud, and my toes had been wrinkled and soaked. I took some aspirin and continued on, but my foul temper and overall body aches had blossomed into a prize migraine. Twilight fell, and the mosquitoes arrived out in pressure, but we sprayed ourselves with DEET and trudged on by the light of our headlamps. Every after in a when, someone in the lead would call back again, “Tree!” or “Rock!” and we’d focus our lamps upward in the mist to avoid hitting our heads. When we stopped for the night time, Joyo nudged my elbow and said, “Less jungle tomorrow. A lot more rocks.”

“Hooray.”

That may well be the only time I have ever welcomed rocks.

Supper was delicious. I will say that. We had the most flavorful meat and rice. Usually the whole working day was really grim. We hung up our moist clothes and attempted to dry our waterlogged toes, lined up like mushrooms on a log. The following day, we crossed our initially big river, walking a mossy log like a harmony beam over roiling Class IV whitewater rapids. Andrea went first, a surefooted pro. I went subsequent, having my time, praying and breathing. Phase. Add pounds. Regular. Ruth followed me, but Kurt took a person seem at the churning h2o and shook his head. His feet had been frostbitten, his pack was obese, and he did not rely on that slimy green log. He received down on his bum and shimmied all the way across, pants be damned.

We made camp in the dark, soaked to the bone, reeking of DEET, but we woke up the subsequent morning to see that we ended up higher than the tree line. We traversed broad-open up fields and felt the humidity drop. Ultimately, we caught a glimpse of the object of our wish, Carstensz Pyramid, off in the distance, a wonderful limestone noticed blade shrouded by fog that billowed up from the jungle. The mountain cuts into the sky with this kind of force, you can just about listen to echoes of its development, a enormous collision of the Australian and Pacific Plates. Rocky ways popped up on the path, and we scrambled about them, hanging on to the rocks as our boots collected mud and early morning dew.

An additional comprehensive day of this, and we arrived at Foundation Camp, just about 4,000 meters, up coming to an aquamarine lake at the foot of Carstensz Pyramid. We could see the Grasberg mine, the biggest gold mine and 2nd-greatest copper mine in the planet. It was a huge supply of money for Indonesia, so it was politically significant. Though helicopters employed to fly individuals to Foundation Camp in excess of the mines, this was not allowed after early climbers allegedly took photos of what appeared to be a strip mining operation. In 2012, as I understood it, mine house owners not often granted any one permission to go by, overhead or on foot. There was a story about a guide who entered the mine zone and finished up investing two months locked in a transport container. Hence the 5-working day journey by the jungle instead of a two-working day trek by the mine.

That evening, after one more astounding supper (roasted pig with sweet potatoes this time), we collected for a gear examine. We’d employed no climbing equipment so much. Now, out arrived the harnesses, ascenders, rappel units, and carabiners for the process ahead. I reminded absolutely everyone to dress in gloves. The temperature experienced dropped to 40 levels. Anticipating difficult rock climbing, we talked through the route, and Kurt went about how to execute a Tyrolean traverse, when two or 3 pieces of rope are suspended for a fifty percent mile or so among two rocks, letting one to clip onto the rope and dangle—face to the sky, excellent void at your back—as you pull you arm over arm to the other side.

We had been up at 2AM for our summit bid. The cold felt clean up and sharp, substantial earlier mentioned the stifling warmth of the jungle. I under no circumstances assumed I’d say it, but I was thrilled at the assumed of seeing snow. The climb got genuine virtually straight away.

“Trust your feet,” said Joyo. “Keep relocating upward.”

I flung myself forward and grabbed keep, coronary heart racing, and pulled myself up the slope. The rock was just about vertical, and my arms were having sweaty. Or probably the rock was moist with mist. Condensation designed slim ledges glassy and slick, but I was donning my 3-time Trangos. So far, so good. Most methods and arm grips were being generous, and the interesting, misty surroundings was unusually calming. I could not overthink or program in advance. The mountain presented me only just one chance at a time, so I took every single one as it came and moved on with gratitude. Dawn rose with an eerie silver horror-flick fog, but I was focused on the black rock in entrance of me, targeted on exactly where I put my feet, centered on retaining my upper overall body free and light.

The prime of Carstensz Pyramid is a difficult SOB you’re up there on that narrow blade, but to get to the precise summit, you have to traverse a collection of jagged fangs that show up to be linked. When you get correct up to it, however, there are gaps between the tooth.

When Joyo jumped above and landed on the tip of a rock formed like a needle, I thought, Oh, hell no! There is no way I can leap on that shark’s tooth. It wasn’t heading to materialize for me. I would fall quick or overshoot.

You obtained this, Vanessa.

I summoned my inner Stretch Armstrong and extended myself throughout considerably ample to grasp Joyo’s hand. Using his knee as an extension of the rock, I was equipped to make it. On to the Tyrolean traverse, which was not as undesirable as I anticipated. I clipped in and worked the ropes, hand above fist. The rope sagged in an elongated U, so gravity assisted press me to the center, but I had to perform tougher to pull myself uphill on the obtaining end. I puzzled the choreography a little and reached my vacation spot the mistaken way round, so I had to turn to climb up. Before long adequate there was a further gap-toothed grin I was way too quick to jump over. I really do not don’t forget how I created it come about, but I’m sure it was not very.

I summited Carstensz Pyramid, Sugapa route, at 16,023 toes, at 8:30 AM on September 23, 2012.

Standing in the silence of the tricky-acquired summit, I looked down on the Grasberg mine, a gaping wound exactly where a uncommon equatorial glacier utilized to be. I do not remember what I was thinking at the time, but when I revisit the moment in my mind, I really feel a sisterhood with this mountain, Puncak Jaya, her strength and her scars. I do remember how very good it felt when the snow commenced falling. I turned my confront up and caught out my tongue to capture a few airy flakes, nearly capable to ignore the warmth and humidity underneath. With gravity on our facet, we rappelled like freewheeling dragonflies, down from the cold fog to the amazing boulders to the heat timberline and back again into that impenetrable blanket of moist jungle warmth.