4 Days

A month ago...
 

Saturday

5:00 am: wake

5:30: look outside for ride

5:45: toss backpack into truck bed and jump in

6:15: leave centre with a group of 18 people from Ukarumpa after prayer and resettling backpacks (paved roads with occasional washouts)

10ish: stop in Goroka for a potty-break, take a group-member up on their offer of drymamine (roads less paved, more gravel and washed out)

12:30ish pm: stop briefly for lunch, begin vehicular accent to Kekesugel (roads: challenging to even describe…It’s like climbing a dry riverbed with a 4wd truck in 1^st the whole 2 hours)

3ish: arrive in Kekesugel @ 9,000ft. Make arrangements for vehicle security, porters, and guides, begin hike, attempting to beat dusk.

In-between time: get to know our guides, use limited Tok Pisin,* admire the incredible views

6:40ish: arrive at base camp @ 11,600ft, just after the sun ducks away for the day. Begin doubting I could handle a 10 hour hike after realizing how freezing it is, how little air there is… oh and my hair is dripping sweating

A bit laterish: calm down after using the lik lik haus** putting on dry clothes, and eating what is the PNG version of Top Ramen

Later yet: restlessly sleep trying to get warm after each round of waking up

Sunday

7 am: wake to warm sun, pristine lake, and a better view than ever. Begin feeling better and then excited about summiting tomorrow

View from base camp along A-frame looking away from Mt Wilhelm

After breakfast: settle down lakeside, relax, meditate, write, practice yoga poses

said pristine lake

This was an incredible time. All my worries and cares were not there. I stared across the lake at this gushing waterfall, thanked God for the day, and wrote: 

“Jesus, these falls and lake and mountains are breathtaking-what a privilege to have made it this far and seen them and heard them WOW!

This place where people do not live, because gardens don’t grow, is just beautiful, pristine, gorgeous

Looking at this waterfall and hearing you speak that I am pure-You have created a word picture. No matter what I do or what anyone says-the source, You, will always keep me pure. Nothing can pollute your cleansing flow. You are constantly washing away impurities and this flow, is lovely.”

The waterfall was high pressured, I don’t know that I’ve seen one more powerful, this close before. It was incredible.

That was the highlight of the whole trip.

The rest of the day: recuperate from prior day’s travel, story with our National friends from Kekesugal, avoid downpour

4:30 pm: eat, settle in, attempt to sleep and ignore worries about climbing tomorrow

Monday (hike day)

12:40 am: wake, dress, put on headlamp, eat

1:40 am: begin accent to Mt. Wilhelm in 6 groups of 3 Ukarumpians and 1 guide

We were up so early we got to watch the moon rise over the lake and then another lake as we climbed from one ridge to the next. I was decidedly in the slowest group with two other women. We took our time, trusting our guides to show us where to step for the least mud and safest accent.

 3 am: my friend realizes she can’t make it and turns back. I begin to doubt myself, but by 4 I decide I’m quite capable. I’ve been training and as long as I keep sipping Tang and nibbling crackers I’ll be fine

5 am: the sun’s light begins to faintly color the sky, but remains hidden

6 am: after a break, my remaining climbing buddy asks how far we are and how much longer it might take us to summit. Our guide explains we are halfway, and if we continue to climb at this rate, it’ll be another 4 hours. My incredible, quite-a-bit-older-than-I-am friend wisely realizes if she continues she won’t have the energy to get down. Both the guide and I ask if she’s sure. She is. Our guide offers to take me and come back for her on our way down. I ask if she could go back with the first group that returns. He explains that, no, they’ll be going too fast. She’ll have to wait.

I’m upset. My energy level, or adrenaline rush, is still going fairly strong. I feel like I’m at the beginning stage of this hike, but I wouldn’t want anyone to sit around for at least 4 hours on the side of a mountain. I’m certainly not upset with my friend, but disappointed to not have had the opportunity to try summiting.  

Yet, in the midst of all this conversation, we are enjoying the most gorgeous sunrise over all the ridges we’ve already done. We see what a feat we’ve already accomplished in the darkness.

Because I’m not quite ready to return, I ask if I can at least finish the ridge we’re stopped on, while my friend rests. It’s a good compromise! The guide and I go to the top of the ridge, story about his life and mine. After about 20 minutes of just soaking up the view, I feel ready to go.  

7 am: All 3 of us begin our decent

11:15 am: We are the 4^th group of 7 to return to base camp, only 1 of 2 who didn’t summit. We may not have attained our 1^st goal, but we accomplished ones we didn’t even have in mind. We were the only ones who got to watch the sunrise without a cloud in the way. Neither of us had a camera, but it’s an experience that really created a strong friendship. In a way, I’m glad it belongs to just the 3 of us: our patient guide, my friend, and me. I am so blessed to have hiked with such an outstanding woman of God! She let me yack her ear off, and set a bar for being physically fit so high that I can only hope to get halfway there when I match her age.

Plus there’s always next time, right?

Monday night/ Tuesday

The rest of the trip: same as the accent, only backwards: sleep another night, hike to Kekesugel, drive 2 hours on the insanely rough roads, stop for lunch, stop for the toilets.

Oh, to pass the time we counted non-repairable, abandoned cars: 421

6:15 pm return to Ukarumpa 

All photos are courtesy of other group members as I am currently without a camera after it took a dip in saltwater in Bougainville.

 

*The main trade language of Papua New Guinea

**which is literally the little house, but actually a squatty toilet (hole in the ground) inside a little house crafted from corrugated tin.