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Crag & Route Beta

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PNG climbing


runnit

31-May-2007
8:04:50 AM

I'm heading over to Lae for several weeks around September and was wondering if anyone knows of any climbing around there.


pat

31-May-2007
9:38:54 AM

Don't know of any routes, but two stories from friends in PNG might interest you.

1. There are many huge walls in PNG. Lots of big limestone walls. E.G. The Hindenburg wall which is over a kilometer high. A friend is a pilot and he says that he regularly flies over hundreds of massive big walls. So there is plenty of new route potential.

2. Civil unrest. Another friend goes up regularly for his company. Every time, he comes back white as a sheet. I don't know about Lae, but in Morseby his driver needs a body guard just to get to the compound to pick him up. I say again, his driver needs a body guard. If you look white, then I suggest caution if you have no experience in PNG.


runnit

31-May-2007
11:19:06 AM

Cheers for the heads up. I'm going over with work so there won't be a huge chance to get out exploring or drag a mass of gear.

From what I've heard, Lae isn't quite as hairy as you're describing Morseby, but it's definitely something to keep in mind, eh. Especially if you're stomping out into the wilderness for a climb.


Dom

31-May-2007
11:50:03 AM

On 31/05/2007 pat wrote:
>So there is plenty of new route potential.

I'm not so sure...


bent

31-May-2007
3:38:39 PM

>On 31/05/2007 pat wrote:
>>So there is plenty of new route potential.
>
>I'm not so sure...

Oh I do like to be beside the screeside....


JamesMc

31-May-2007
7:30:13 PM

runnit,
You need to get in touch with SuperStu who lives at Madang and occasionally posts to this site. I'll pm you his email

JamesMc


Zebedee

31-May-2007
10:09:58 PM

>2. Civil unrest. Another friend goes up regularly for his company. Every
>time, he comes back white as a sheet. I don't know about Lae, but in Morseby
>his driver needs a body guard just to get to the compound to pick him up.
>I say again, his driver needs a body guard. If you look white, then I
>suggest caution if you have no experience in PNG.
I would take this with a grain of salt. Yes it can be dangerous there but white isn't the issue rich is. Be poor, don't have a driver, don't live in a compound and don't have anything worth stealing (and don't be female, as far as the raskals are concerned chicks always have something worth taking) and you could well enjoy yourself. I went there in 1999 and predictions from over here were about the same but I saw no trouble and never felt threatened and enjoyed myself. I know if you use the chockstone search function you will find info on "rocks" in PNG. I didn't go climbing there so have nothing to offer in that respect. Hook up with locals and be careful. Same as any third world country.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

1-Jun-2007
4:26:27 PM

On 31/05/2007 Dom wrote:
>I'm not so sure...
>
>

& bent wrote
>Oh I do like to be beside the screeside....

OK trivial pursuit time.
This photo looks very much to me like the landslide that occurred just above Ok Tedi Copper/gold mine site (ie the Telefomin side), back in the late 70's.
Memory is getting vague for specifics now, but I recall it raised the bed of the Ok Tedi River by approximately 2 metres at a flow monitoring site located about 15 km downstream ...
It does not look like much in the photo (or real life for that matter), as the scale of the wall is so big that it dwarfs the immensity of the landslide by comparison.
You could easily fit a few 'Dogface's' on top of each other to cover that slip, and this is by no means the highest part of the wall ...

Re
>raskols
Lae, like most large population centres in PNG, has its own reputation for violence, though places like Hagen and Moresby are considered to be worse. The raskols in Moresby are often not 'true locals' but other nationals who have drifted their for work. Nationals raskoling other nationals is a common event there, so it does not surprise me that the 'driver' was a target.

Zeb is close to the money imo.

Travelling at night, alone, or to secluded (ie only one road in/out), spots during the day could be a problem.

There is not much climbing close to Lae from my memory ... but even so, take time to enjoy the difference in culture. As they advertise; PNG is like every other place you have never been.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Post edit 1735 hrs.
I found the site where that photo came from and my earlier guess was proved right.
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~gmi196/DrylandRivers/pickup/Hindenburg_Wall_slide_PNG.htm


Superstu

2-Jun-2007
8:26:14 AM

Up the Ramu and Markum valleys out from Lae there are various rock outcrops, but probably not worth investigating unless you were planning to live there and willing to spend a weekend or two sussing out whether there was anything climbable nearby. Visiting places like Finschafen and the turtle research centre are probably better ways to spend your weekends if you're in Lae, or get a PMV or plane to Madang and go diving the WW2 wrecks and coral reefs instead.

I have seen possibilities for climbing in the Chimbu province. The road between Kundiawa and Kekesugl passes through a limestone karst system which looks great. Lots of house-sized blobs of irregularly-formed blue limestone (reminiscent of the limestone outcrops around the Jenolan caves). In some places the locals have used some of the outcrops as walls for houses or fences for gardens, very cute. A few days, some keen boulderers, and who knows. The locals would surely be amused with your antics and I'm sure you would make many friends. I'll post some photos of this place later today.

The other climbing possibility is around Mt Wilhelm. This section of PNG is very high (> 4000m) and gets lots of cloud but little snow. The rock is unusual for PNG in that its mostly solid and not vegetated! Last time I was there a local told of some Isreali's who came through not so long ago and did some climbing with ropes, so stuff is going on. It's fairly accessible (about 2 hrs walk from the road to a hut, then another hour to the crags). The walk to the summit of Mt Wilhelm takes you past all that rock and is an extremely good fun walk, probably the best thing to do in PNG if you have about 4 days spare. You can see both north and south coasts of PNG and all the highlands in between and into West Papua. We couldn't pick out Carstenz Pyramid but we generally knew where it was.

Again I'll dig up some photos of the mt wilhelm region later tonight. There is also limestone outcrops in Chauve that a work colleage took me back to her village to show me (because she knew I was into climbing rocks) .. some amusing tales but again unless you lived here not quality enough to drag the bolt gun and rack around to bother.

stu


Superstu

2-Jun-2007
11:41:13 AM

Here are some pics of the limestone around Kundiawa. Sorry for the poor quality pics they were taken with an el cheapo pocket digital camera while hanging on to the back of a ute!

Approaching the valley full of unexplored limestone cliffs...

Bouldering paradise??? Lots of house-sized blobs of smooth sculptured limestone

Fairly solid limestone...

Getting there is half the adventure.

Would be grid bolted if it was in europe..


Superstu

2-Jun-2007
11:49:21 AM

That last cliff with some perspective


Superstu

2-Jun-2007
11:55:56 AM

Something from near the summit of mt wilhelm


Superstu

2-Jun-2007
11:59:30 AM

Great place to go walking...

I assume the Isrealis went to climb something over there...

Not bad alpine rock, beats NZ!!


IdratherbeclimbingM9

6-Jun-2007
12:39:52 PM

Good pics superstu.
Brings back good memories.

superstu wrote;
>There is also limestone outcrops in Chauve (snip) .. >some amusing tales but again unless you lived here not quality enough to drag the bolt gun and rack around to bother.

I disagree. but maybe I was desperate for climbing at the time?
There is good adventure climbing to be had there. Particularly Mt Elimbari.
I also did some routes on the limestone cliffs on the 4wd track enroute to it (from Chuave). You won't find bolts there, unless someone retro'd the lines I did.


Superstu

6-Jun-2007
9:39:43 PM

Well, I haven't seen anything inspiring enough that I would fetch my rack from Oz and travel two days on a PMV to climb it. If there was something of interest here in Madang then maybe..

I haven't heard of Mt Elimbari, where is that relative to Chuave? In fact the last two pictures of limestone cliffs I posted above are on a road out from Chuave (not between Kundiawa and Kekesugl as implied by the text, I just couldn't be bothered adding the trivia). The bit of cliff I bouldered was too soft, but bits higher up looked OK. There was a bit of tat about 10m up, and apparently the story goes long taim ago some scouts came along and went for a climb (or was it an abseil??? hard to work out in rambling tok pisin) but one fell off and died and that was the end of that!! So the locals were not all enthusiastic that I climb their little rock but they didn't mind showing me around the place. Apparently further up the road is a bigger cliff but I didn't get to see it. I wonder if that is this Elimbari.? The road through Chuave has been realigned recently, but there is a left turn off the highlands highway (going towards hagen from goroka) which heads up into the hills.

I assume you would have seen the rock up around wilhelm. Did any of that inspire you? I think the dry season for that area is about now if I recall. Not that I'm thinking of heading up there any time soon - it's election time right now (fun fun fun)


Superstu

6-Jun-2007
9:55:42 PM

Is this Mt. Elimbari?


Superstu

6-Jun-2007
9:58:19 PM

Here is another view from Wilhelm. Right of center is a tiny pinnacle obscured by a ridge. It's a free standing rock pinnacle, about 200m high. From where the picture was taken it would be a day or two walk. It's looking towards the Jimi Valley and could possibly be approached from that direction.


Superstu

6-Jun-2007
10:06:51 PM

The terrain on the way to the pinnacle...


Superstu

6-Jun-2007
10:30:49 PM

The only thing climbed in PNG so far...


IdratherbeclimbingM9

7-Sep-2011
6:45:24 PM

I am absolutely STOKED, to trip over this thread again years later... (thanks kieranl, for the indirect link off another duplicate thread), as it seems I did not get back to it after more posts made on it from superstu.

>That last cliff with some perspective

When I saw these I thought they looked familiar, but the road at the base tricked me.

A Canadian fellow and myself did two and a half (natural line), trad climbs on it, but the road at the base then was just dual wheel tracks over very rough ground when I was last there.
(I will write more detail about the climbs in a response/within your post quoted lower).

>Is this Mt. Elimbari?

Yes & yes!
Unfortunately the part obscured by cloud is where that same Canadian fellow and myself put up a multipitch line that tops out not far left from the summit. Mostly on reasonable quality rock but with a couple of vegetated bits, that helped for making belays!

On 6/06/2007 superstu wrote:
>Well, I haven't seen anything inspiring enough that I would fetch my rack
>from Oz and travel two days on a PMV to climb it. If there was something
>of interest here in Madang then maybe..
>
Madang had buggerall climbing for my money. Plenty of super-sharp coral-limestone sea level traverses to be had though!

>I haven't heard of Mt Elimbari, where is that relative to Chuave? In fact
>the last two pictures of limestone cliffs I posted above are on a road
>out from Chuave (not between Kundiawa and Kekesugl as implied by the text,
>I just couldn't be bothered adding the trivia).

Those are the trackside cliffs we did the lines on back in 1979 (maybe 1980, I would have to relocate an old stored away diary to confirm...)!

~> continued next page/post.

There are 21 messages in this topic.