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You are here: Home -> Current Fields -> Papua New Guinea -> Mt Wilhelm Climb and Gembogl Crusade - Sept 2011

Halfway up the mountain, with the clouds enveloping us in a white eerie world

Mt Wilhelm Climb and Gembogl Crusade

September, 2011

Uploaded: 21 December 2011

Make sure you also view:

My Photo Album of Mt. Wilhelm
Wikipedia article with more information about Mt. Wilhelm

Story by Richard Carver (Jnr)

Richard Carver Jnr In September 2011, the Chimbu Youth did something quite historic - we climbed Mt. Wilhelm, the highest mountain in PNG and Oceania. Mt Wilhelm is 4509 metres high (14,793 ft). Since the highlands of PNG are already some 2000 metres high, that meant the actual climb was about 2500 metres (about 8000 ft).

We had to travel along a mountainous dirt road with steep cliffs down to the Chimbu River at the bottom for about 2 hours. On the way there it was dry and the road was fine, but coming back it had been raining and the road was a bit slippery. To make it worse, the car we were travelling in was almost out of diesel and we had to rush back before the afternoon rain.

We got to the mountain base at about 6:00pm on Thursday. We were meant to stay in a lodge down the bottom of the mountain, but we heard that it was at least 6 hours climb to the top, so we decided we’d better start walking straight away. Normally, you should climb the mountain in the dark and be up on the summit for sunrise so you can see the view. After sunrise, it all clouds in, so you can't see anything at all.

Ghostly Spires rising up through the mist

We walked for up a long muddy staircase track through a forest, which took us over 4 hours. Some of the people who came along were older and slower, which meant the climb was slower than normal. They were fainting and collapsing all over the track, and it was cold and damp just like a Southern Hemisphere winter. We finally made it to the “Two Lakes” at 11:30pm at night.

Once we made it to the two lakes, I thought we were getting close, but actually, that’s only the start of the journey. I slept for a few hours, then the guide woke us up at 3:00am and we started walking again. We went off unprepared, without any breakfast or food in our backpacks, which was a real mistake. We climbed up a cliff, and by the time the sun rose we were at the site of a WWII plane crash. You can still see some wreckage from the plane there. We kept on walking after this for what seemed like ages, along the top of mountain ridges and around huge granite peaks which towered up over us for hundreds of metres. The mist had moved in, and all we could see was ghostly spires rising through the mist when the wind moved some of the clouds out of the way. By this time my legs were so tired and my body so weak that I could hardly keep going. But we pushed on and finally at almost lunchtime we made it to Mt. Wilhelm, after walking up a never-ending track past about 15 other peaks.

But it’s really beautiful up there. I am convinced that the two lakes are old volcano crater lakes, because they are surrounded by steep walls, and the lakes have no bottom and no shallow banks. The mountains are hard granite and very rocky. It’s not really a hard climb, it’s what they call a “scramble climb” just walking up and up, but not really climbing vertical cliffs. It seemed like a never-ending journey over stones and boulders.

The granite summit of Mt. Wilhelm, finally visible after 8 hours of walking

It occasionally snows up the top of the mountain, or very cold rain, and on our way up we passed the markers of grave sites on the mountains where people have perished over the years. One such place is Christopher Donnell, an Australian Army officer who went missing in the 1970s and never found. His grave marker reads "If heaven is in a high place, then it is a privilege to rest so close to God". We also passed the bones of another victim who died from exposure, and since there is no soil up there, was buried under a pile of stones as his grave.

Finally we reached the top, and about 15 youths climbed up to the flag marker to have finally conquered the mountain. After returning from the mountain (and recovering from sleep), we held the crusade in Gembogl Station. About 200 youths were there, and it was a very productive weekend. Both Bro Pai and myself preached and taught the youth and reached out to the community around Gembogl Station.

I took some photos during the climb, and you can see them here: You can click on the pictures to make them bigger too.

My Photo Album of Mt. Wilhelm
Wikipedia article with more information about Mt. Wilhelm

All around it was a grand time to be had by all, even though it was so tiring. I recommend it for any mountain climbers and scenery lovers. I was glad to have been part of the team which conquered Mt. Wilhelm!

- Richard Carver Jnr


The upper of the "Two Lakes"	The Youth Crusade we held at Gembogl Station