I was escorted in a local police vehicle to a remote “city” that was built specifically for the 15,000 miners under the cover of darkness. After waiting until after midnight, they loaded me into the back of a jeep and then covered me with supplies. We went through several check points and drove quite literally through a maze of tunnels until we popped out into a gigantic copper pit. Dodging dump trucks the size of two large houses we were dumped off at the far end of the mine and was told they would be back to pick us up in the exact same location in five days. Secretly, I was having doubts about this plan. We then hiked three hours in the dark until we reached basecamp.
What I had failed to take into account was this was a rainforest. The airlines had conveniently left all of my gear in Sydney. Everyday it rained from noon until midnight. It wasn’t a drizzle or a light rain but a heavy and steady down pour! So, on summit day we left at 5:00 am and got to the base of the climb at 6:00 am and had six hours to get up, down and back to camp in order to beat the rain.
The clouds starting moving in around 9:00 right as I reached the ridge and snapped this photo. You can see the copper pit in the background.
We reached the summit in good spirits at 10:00 am and had a brief celebration. It was totally clouded in by now. Down climbing in the rain was not an option and my wingsuit was unfortunately at the cleaners, so we made haste.
This was undoubtedly one of the stupidest moves I’d made in my twenty plus years of climbing. On the way up we had to rappel down fifty feet, cross a small
ledge and then ascend back up fifty feet. This was time consuming, so on the way down I opted to do the zip line in order to save time. About half way across the line is weighted and you have to pull yourself across the rest of the way. I was praying that the gear that I had borrowed wasn’t going to fail and recalling the numerous times that as a climbing instructor telling my students to never climb with someone else’s gear. Thank God it all worked out because sometimes you just have to break all the rules.
Photos & stories by
Troy Aupperle
The highest peak in Oceania.
16,023’
1-15-07
Access issues are the main challenge in climbing this peak. It sits right next to the largest gold and copper mine in the world. There are three ways to get to the base of the mountain. The first is to charter a helicopter. The second is to trek for a week through a leech-infested jungle. The third is to “sneak” through the mine. I was promised a helicopter. That didn’t happen, so I chose option three.
