Seven summits: 6 down, 1 to go for local climber

WASILLA — Just four months after summiting the world’s tallest mountain, Chris Longacre, 32, bested the tallest peak in Australasia on Oct. 18.

Carstensz Pyramid was the sixth peak in his effort to summit the highest peak on all seven continents.

“Of all the mountains so far, this one was culturally and technically the most difficult terrain,” he said Nov. 5, one week after returning to Alaska from the successful climb.

Longacre said the environment and culture were both very different compared to his previous mountaineering experiences. Just getting to base camp required six flights, a 45-minute ride on a motorcycle and a five-day trek through a rain forest.

“It was interesting,” Longacre said. “Big-time interesting — National Geographic stuff.”

Items not common to everyday life in Alaska, such as machetes, blow darts and very little in the way of clothing, he said.

Carstensz Pyramid is near the Freeport Copper Mine in Papua province, Indonesia. Longacre said access to the area is tightly controlled and he and the other climbers needed several permits to access the area.

He said everyone granted a permit is given strict instructions to stay out of the mine area. Their trip took an unexpectedly serious turn when a couple of climbers in their group entered the area without permission. Longacre said the offending climbers were arrested, searched and deported.

Longacre said the most challenging part of this climb was the 10 days the group spent trekking through the rainforest in knee-high rubber wellingtons. He said walking through the deep mud and bogs was challenging, but the drama with the group’s porters added to the difficulty.

Longacre said he booked the trip with an Indonesian company that hires porters from nearby villages. He said no one spoke much English, which added to the confusion. Mostly, he said the difficulty was something he came to call porter drama, an endless series of schemes, bribes and negotiations for increased pay.

“They’re always trying to get more money,” Longacre said. “What are you going to do? You are at the mercy of your porter. You are halfway in and they are carrying your extra stuff.”

One of the items the tour company suggested climbers bring puzzled Longacre. At least at first he wasn’t sure why he’d need an umbrella on a trek through the rainforest. That is, until the first afternoon rain shower rolled over them, rain like he’d never seen poured from the sky in sheets, Longacre said. The umbrellas provided the only way to get out of the rain when the caravan stopped between campsites.

Most climbers who reach the summit are treated to socked in views from the top. But not Longacre and company. He said they were treated to clear skies on their summit day.

“The summit was the plush part of the trip,” Longacre said. “It’s a pretty straightforward rock climb.”

Completing the seven peaks challenge is an expensive undertaking, he said. Sponsors have assisted Longacre with fundraising on the last two trips from several Alaska-owned companies. Sponsors for the Carstensz climb were Alborn Construction, The Vortex Group, Mat-Su Plastic Surgery and Today’s Window Fashions.

Getting the fourth-generation Alaskan to his seventh summit also will require the help of financial sponsors, he said. Left to conquer is Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica. Airfare for just one leg of that trip is $27,000, Longacre said.

“It’s kind of turning into a feasibility study at this point,” he said.

He said he might have to wait a year, but he’d like to do this last climb in January 2014.

“I’m trained up and ready to go,” Longacre said.

For more information, visit bit.ly/110IXl1.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.

The Seven Summits are the highest points on all seven continents. Richard Bass was the first mountaineer to summit all seven on April 30, 1985. Here’s a list of the six peaks Chris Longacre has climbed, the continent where they are located, height and the year he reached the summit.

• Mount McKinley, North America, 20,320 feet —1999

• Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa, 19,341 feet — 2010

• Mount Aconcagua, South America, 22,838 feet —2011

• Mount Elbrus, Europe, 18,510 feet — 2012

• Mount Everest, Asia, 29,035 — May 2013

• Castensz Pyramid, Australasia, 16,024 feet — October 2013

• Mount Vinson Massif, Antarctica, 16,050 — still to come