Carstensz Pyramid

The highest mountain in Oceania

Fahad Badar’s 9 August 2025 ascent of Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, his fifth of the Seven Summits, with guide Tashi Lakpa Sherpa.

The highest peak in Oceania is the Carstensz Pyramid, also known as Puncak Jaya, at 4,884 meters, in the Papua region of Indonesia. Although it is in a tropical region, it is sufficiently high that there can be low temperatures and snow near the summit. Accordingly, the change in temperature during a climb is quite extreme.

The mountaineering challenge of the ‘Seven Summits’ – reaching the peak of the tallest mountains on each continent – is widely recognized. There are actually two lists, depending on whether Oceania or Australasia is considered the seventh continent. The first mountaineer to be considered as having completed the Seven Summits is Richard Bass, who climbed Mount Kosciuszko in Australia. Reinhold Messner proposed replacing Mount Kosciuszko with Carstensz Pyramid, which he climbed in 1971. Pat Morrow completed that list in 1986, and Messner completed it later the same year. Accordingly there are two lists – the Bass List and the Messner List.

Indonesia’s Papua region is the western half of New Guinea, which it shares with Papua New Guinea; Carstensz Pyramid lies in the province of Central Papua. My flight was to the city of Timika, which lies to the south of the mountain range.

When I arrived on the island in March 2025, a tragic event intervened. Some local climbers became stuck near the summit. There was a rescue attempt, but two of them died. Accordingly all climbs were cancelled for a week. I only had a short period of leave from work, so I decided to abandon the summit attempt on that trip, and to return in August. For the second attempt, after a helicopter flight from Timika to the base camp – which takes you over one of the largest open cast gold mines in the world: a remarkable sight – we arrived at base camp. It is possible to cover the distance by hiking, but this is a route through a tropical forest in which rebel forces had been active, so it was not considered safe.

My companion and guide was Tashi Lakpa Sherpa. The upper sections and the peak of Carstensz Pyramid are very rocky, with many jagged points and sheer drops. Climbing a technically difficult mountain of below 5,000 meters is a very different experience to a Himalayan peak where many days or weeks of acclimatization are required. It is fast, physical and exhilarating – on 9 August 2025, Tashi and I reached the summit and returned to base camp in just six hours, in perfect dry and sunny weather. It was tremendously satisfying for me to reach the peak – my fifth of the Seven Summits.