Forgotten Land: The New Guinea Highlands

Older athletes never die, they just find a new testing ground. This is certainly applicable in my case. After my high school and college track career where I ran middle distance, I graduated to marathons and triathlons, culminating in a lifetime dream of qualifying and running the 100th Boston Marathon, a defining moment in my life. After Boston, at the age of 45, I then launched into the climbing career that had so fascinated me in books as a young man. I quit a job in the then booming silicon valley to spend a month climbing Denali the hard way - via the West Buttress over Denali Pass, down the Muldrow Glacier and on to Wonder Lake. A traverse of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro followed and I had the beginning of 'Seven Summit' fever popularized by Dick Bass and Frank Wells in the 80's. As an ex Peace Corps volunteer from Africa and seasoned traveler, this continent based climbing appealed to both my love of exotic travel as well as my passion for endurance sports.

Click the button below for a historical and geographical summary of the Puncak Jaya…