Soon we came up to the summit ridge, where we would take another 1-2h to complete the ascent. There were 2-3 parts where there was a gap in the ridge, and which was too far to jump across. Imagine the ridge, with unsurvivable steep drops on both sides. Getting from Point A to B required scrambling down to a "standalone" mid-point, and jump/step-crawl up the other side. A fairly easy big step for long-limbed folks, but a challenging small jump for shorter climbers like me. Step meant one foot still in contact with the surface. Jump meant both feet off. Our guide, Josh, belayed me down, and I had to gingerly place one foot to the very edge in order to make that jump. A distance that one would not even bat an eyelid in normal life quickly morphed into a gaping hole with silent voids on all sides. My imagination was definitely in overdrive. I was quite paralysed there for a few seconds, but finally told myself that I had to move. Took a deep breath and jumped, to cheers from behind (or everyone would be stuck).
😬 I did not even want to think of the return climb down...We got to the highlight of the climb - the famous tyrolean traverse. Wikipedia defines it as "a method of crossing through free space between two high points on a rope without a hanging cart or cart equivalent". Think action movies where the hero arm-hangs or walks across a tightrope... The old tyrolean traverse was indeed for hanging upside down and using arms to pull oneself across. The new setup that we used comprised three steel wires; two wires for the right and left hands into which we clipped our locking carabiners, and the third for walking across one foot in front of the other. After all the excitement and YouTube videos, the tyrolean traverse turned out to be quite stable, super cool experience!
A couple more palpitating gaps and deep breaths on the knife-like ridges, we finally reached the summit base. A short scramble took us to the shiny sign proclaiming the summit of Carstensz Pyramind (4,884m). Whoosh! 11:37am, slightly over 6h, on 13 Aug 2018. The climbing company made personalised summit banners for each climber, and with my large SGP flag, it was a busy affair getting the summit pic organised in the fluttering wind. We were very lucky to have good weather throughout the entire climb, and could even see basecamp from the summit.
In theory, the descent should be somewhat faster. In reality, not a lot. We had to go through all those scary gaps again, albeit they felt easier on the second attempt. Where I had jumped down across a gap, I now had to climb up, and vice-versa. Gilles went in front of me and Josh took the rear, helping me with a pull or push at times. At one point, they were giving me directions on where to place my hands and feet, but based on their heights.
😂
In the end, I found my own hand/ footholds and scrambled up. Once
passed the jagged ridges and tyrolean traverse, it was a lot of
rappelling over the steep walls. Lean back, legs out, go, switch over
anchor points, repeat. Endless times. Some of the newer ropes were so
stiff that I did not lower an inch even when I bounced in my seat
harness or released the locking rope. After quite an eternity, we
reached the last of the fixed ropes (whew!) and our basecamp tents were
right ahead. Mission accomplished, up and back down safely, in perfect
weather! 
😊Now, we pray hard for a chance to fly out of basecamp tomorrow. It was another sleepless restless night of tossing in my sleeping bag. At 6am, the commotion outside my tent suggested that the heli was coming in with the remaining three members of our team, and to fly the three from the previous expedition out. That was the earliest takeoff the pilot had made in the past week! Fingers crossed tightly for him to make a second trip and take us out too. Meanwhile, our three teammates set off for their summit attempt. Our prayers were answered and all of us got back to Timika and caught our connecting flights to Bali that same morning. We also later got news that everyone else had summited and returned to BC.
🙏
