January 16, 2008 by Lei.

After a 5 days’ delay by storm, I just got out of Antarctica this morning, and caught my flight to Mendoza by a narrow margin. I’m sitting here in steaming Mendoza at a hotel with hot shower (the first real one in a month!) and flushing toilet. Then I will depart for a 5-day acclimatization training trip tomorrow before making my third attempt on Aconcagua.

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January 16, 2008 by Lei.

Starting Point: South 89: 02.038, West 94:27.811,

Ending Point: South 90:00.000

Distance: 107 km

Date: Jan 3 - Jan 9, 2008, 7 days’ hard work.

I underestimated the workload of last degree ski before the trip. I never imagined the sled would be so big:

We started the trip with the sled weighing 50-60 kilos, and it looks even bigger than me. Though Antarctica is generally a big flat plain, it’s full of “sastrugi’, the snow drift. Though they may not be so high most of time, they are enough to hold up my sled from time to time. In addition to the snow drift, the journey is a gentle uphill all the way.

This trip is as much a mental game as a physical game. The big white plain, nothing else. You need a lot of patience to get through each “boring” day:

My skis point to due south

The average temperature for the trip is around -25 C, even with bright sunshine and blue sky. A light wind of 5-10 kts would bring significant wind chill effect. That makes cool picture though:

The last day was the hardest day. A constant head wind of 15-20 kts brought the wind chill to -40C:

We could see the destination from 7 miles away. What seemed so close was still many hours away:

South Pole Station on the horizon 3-4 miles away

It was the goal that kept me going even though I was very exhausted already:

I finally pulled into South Pole!

I bet no one expected such a modern structure at South Pole!

US Amundsen-Scott Station at South Pole

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January 16, 2008 by Lei.

Vinson is called mini Denali by a lot of people.

They share very similar landscape and scenery:

You may think it’s cloud out there, but no, it’s just glacier:

First, we made a single carry trip from base camp to low camp by carrying a back pack and pulling a sled behind us:

Between low camp and high camp, we make a double carry to climb a steep slope along 1200m of fixed rope. By “double carry”, we climb this route twice to carry half of our load up each time, because the slope was too steep to pull a sled.

Summit day was a long day. I finally got good luck with weather with climbing on this trip, but it was a painful day for me because I was having a stomach cramp and diarrhea whole day, maybe from the insufficiently-hydrated dry-freeze food the night before. Nonetheless, I was very excited to make it even in such a weak condition:

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December 18, 2007 by Lei.

This Afternoon, we had our second brief meeting. The snow finally stopped by Sunday, and it was said to be the longest snow storm in 22 years memory. This morning 7:30am, the Dec 10 group finally took off and landed at Patriot Hill after about 4 hours´s fly. As we speak at 4pm, the flight is carrying 54 climbers and skiers back from Antarctica, and is scheduled to land in Punta Arenas around 7:30pm. All patience on Vinson paid off — all the people who hunkered down on Mt Vinson during the snow storm last week made to the summit eventually, except a group of 3 under Dave Harn´s guide who is still making the second summit attempt. Skiers also reached south pole and being picked up before their tea supplies run out Everyone is safe.

There´s only one plane and one crew that can fly this route, and they need 12 hours break after a long trip. So we are planning to fly tomorrow morning. The weather forecast does not look so good though, another storm is closing in, but we will try our best to make an attempt. Every hour would count at this moment. Sometimes, the flight may have to turn around after 4.5 hours´ flight because the landing window is closed, so the crew is always prepared for a non-stop round trip.

Let´s pray for the weather!

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December 17, 2007 by Lei.

The wild wild west scenery on way from Punta Arenas to Pueto Natales:

Guanacos wandering around in the park of Torres del Paine:

The Torres del Paine, looking from faraway outside park:

I went up to the base of the Torres at 5am to see the sunrise. Unfortunately, the Torres didn’t turn all red as we hoped. Not sure how those postcard pictures got those mystical colors, maybe need some special geological event.

The Glacier Grey is a giant glacier river flow into Lago Grey (lake Grey). The ice from the glacier breaks off at water mouth and became icebergs on the lake:

The Cuernos del Paine:

This is a bridge near park entrance/exit. It’s amazing how the driver can manage to drive a van across without scratching the car!

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December 15, 2007 by Lei.

The first two days in Punta Arenas were centered around the trip preparation, of course. Yesterday, I got my gear checked. They were a little bit concerned about my down jacket, which is a 750-fill of LoweAlpine from my friend Jing. To be safe, I rented a bullet-proof 800 fill North Face one. They only have size XL in stock, which looks like a sleeping bag on me, but it´s guaranteed to be safe!

This morning, we had our first brief meeting. We have total 46 (or 47) people going in on this flight and are all for Mt Vinson climb, including 4 women climbers. My group under ALE´s guide has 5 members, including 2 Korean, 1 Ecuadorian, 1 Serbian, and me. This is going be a interesting group. One of the Korean member is a world famous climber HongGil Um, who was the number 8th person in the world to climb all 14 of the 8000m peaks and who has seen a lot of his team members perishing on the mountain! The Ecuadorian climber is Patricio Tisalema Torres, a professional guide himself who soloed Mt Everest last year without supplemental oxygen.

The first brief meeting

At the moment, it was snowing hard in Antarctica, and has been so for a week. The Dec 10 departure group is still waiting in Punta Arenas, because of Ilyum flight can only land on hard blue ice runway. Even if the snow is going to stop by tomorrow, it takes 36 hours to clean up the runway. The earliest possible date to fly is Tuesday. So we are talking about 72 hours’ guaranteed no-fly zone and are advised to have some fun traveling! So I’m taking off to visit Torres del Paine for the next couple days, and come back for update on Tuesday.

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December 14, 2007 by Lei.

Punta Arenas lies on the western shore of the Straits of Magellan, in Chile’s southernmost region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica. Punta Arenas means SandyPoint. With a population of approximately 125,000, Punta Arenas is a small city with remote and frontier character.

The view of Punta Arenas city from a hill:

The sea port at Punta Arenas:

The green land that divides traffic on avenida:

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December 12, 2007 by Lei.

I’m en route to Punta Arenas, Chile, from where the flight to Antarctica would take off.

Current schedule is to depart from Punta Arenas on Dec 16 to climb Mt Vinson (4897m, 16,067ft), the highest peak on the Antarctica continent. It may take 2 weeks, depending on weather condition. Then I will ski the last degree to reach South Pole, and return to Punta Arenas on Jan 10. But obviously, weather is a critical factor here, delays of 1 or 2 weeks is not unusual.

After getting out of Antarctica, I will make my third attempt on Mt Aconcagua, the highest peak of South America, before I return to Boston in February.

The past few weeks have been very busy and stressful — leaving a job, keeping up with training, and pulling together the finance and logistics for all the upcoming expeditions for the next half year. I really appreciate the many friends who devoted so much time and energy to help me on fund raising, publicity campaign, training, and cheered me through hard times. I’m feeling kind of sentimental to take on such a long and hard journey, but I’m going with warm thoughts of all the heart-felt wishes from friends all over the places. Thank you!

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November 29, 2007 by Lei.

This trip was the fastest one in terms of climbing, but the longest one in terms of access. So much time, money, and energy was wasted on issues that didn’t directly contribute to climbing, and Freeport Mine was the root source of all these stresses. I had thought that this is just what happens when you travel in a developing country, but one day I read in a local newspaper that the Freeport Mine actually belongs to a US company, and there were many complains about this business from local people. So I did some research, and felt it interesting enough to share my findings with people who might care how this influential American company — ordinarily subjected to rigorous scrutiny and restrictions in its home country — could adapt to, and even thrive in, a foreign business environment riddled with corruption, and operate in a remote area effectively under military law.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (“FCX”), the world’s lowest-cost copper producer and one of the world’s largest producers of gold, is an international mining industry leader based in Arizona, USA. PT Freeport Indonesia is one of its principal operating subsidiaries, whose principal asset is the world-class Grasberg mine in the province of Papua in Indonesia, which contains the world’s largest single copper reserve and world’s largest single gold reserve.

Picture of Grasberg Mine from Wikipedia

1. Engineering Marvel

In a special investigative report, the New York Times noted that “Freeport has built what amounts to an entirely new society and economy, all of its own making. Where nary a road existed, Freeport, with the help of the San Francisco-based construction company Bechtel, built virtually every stitch of infrastructure over impossible terrain in engineering feats that it boasts are unparalleled on the planet.”

In developing its open-pit mining operation, Freeport has shaved off more than 120 meters of the 4,884 meter-high Puncuk Jaya Mountain, or what we called Carstensz Pyramid, by 1996. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Carstensz used to be16,503 ft, or 5,031 m.

The cost of building a mine on a mountain was 3 billion USD.

2. Security Coalition

In March 2003, Freeport disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid the Indonesian Military $4.7 million in 2001 and $5.6 million for the employment of about 2300 “Indonesian government security personnel”. Between 1996 and 2004 at least $50 million was spent by Freeport, officially on providing vehicles, accommodation and food for Indonesian Military personnel. The NYT reported that company documents it had obtained revealed that some individual commanders received tens of thousands of dollars, in one case up to $150,000.

It is well known that in many areas where mining is being conducted, there is a very close relationship between the companies and the armed forces and police. The result is that when conflicts erupt between the mining corporations and local communities, the latter are at a great disadvantage. Same for Papua, in order to control “insurgents” and “local resistance”, Freeport justified the needs for directly-controlled security forces, which in turn intensified the tension. But, why would there be “insurgents” and “local resistance” against the mine operation? Let’s see what Freeport did to local communities.

3. Economic Contribution

The Freeport mine, the biggest in the world, boasts about $1 million per day in profits (in gold and copper ore). The company contributed $33 billion in direct and indirect benefits to the Indonesian government, approximately 2% of GDP, between 1992 and 2004. In some years, it has been the biggest source of revenue to the Indonesian government.

However, the West Papuan people have seen very little of this largesse. In particular, the indigenous people who lived in the mining concession area have suffered numerous injustices and humiliations. The several thousand Amungme and Kamoro people who lived in the area were relocated from their traditional lands into refugee settlements, as well as gravitating to the mining town of Timika, previously home to a small population.

“Now it is home to more than 100,000 in a Wild West atmosphere of too much alcohol, shootouts between the soldiers and police, AIDS and prostitution, protected by the military”, the New York Times reported. This has led to what some have called “cultural genocide”. Without access to their traditional land and with little prospect of employment, the local people are losing their social and cultural cohesiveness. Alcohol abuse and drug dependencies are more common.

Freeport was not required to compensate the local people for anything other than the dwellings they had lived in, and is allowed to exploit the natural resources of the area unhindered.

Only 13% of the 17,000 employees working at Freeport are people from West Papua.

4. “Eco Terrorism”

The vast Grasberg deposit ensures a long mine life, so it is most profitable for Freeport to process a huge amount of ore each day, wasting around 14% of the copper in the ore, which remains in tailings disposed of into the river. For the same reason, a large amount of copper-bearing rock has been excavated then dumped instead of processed, because the joint venture chose to pursue higher grade ore as quickly as possible.

The mine’s tailings, generated at a rate of 700,000 tons per day, are the subject of considerable environmental concern. The waste rock remains in the highlands, up to 900 feet deep and covering 3 square miles (8 km²), but its runoff and the finer material gets washed into the headwaters of the Ajikwa River and settles out all along the course of the river. This rate of heavy metal pollution is more than a million times worse than achievable with standard mining industry pollution prevention practices. The waste has also accumulated in the lowlands and has now buried 233 square kilometers of once-abundant wetlands as well as destroying at least 130 square kilometers of rain forest. The fish have nearly disappeared from the river. The mine’s management has warned local people not to drink water or eat plants growing near the river, but has not explained why.
It’s amazing how the company could operate such a vastly invasive mining operation in an area of such ecological and cultural significance, yet still pollute so irresponsibly with relative impunity. Unfortunately, the environmental law is not enforced by the Ministry of Environment due to the joint venture’s pervasive financial and political influence.

The environmental record of the Freeport mine is so bad that in 1995 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which insures US companies against political risk, revoked Freeport’s insurance. No other company had ever been cut off before. The OPIC insurance policy was reinstated in April 1996, after Freeport threatened to file a protracted lawsuit against the federal agency, but then Freeport instead decided to cancel its insurance policies with both OPIC and the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) five months later. In so doing, Freeport avoided an imminent investigation by the World Bank agency into its mining operations.

5. “Cultural Genocide”

“Our environment has been ruined and our forests and rivers polluted by waste. The sago forests which serve as our primary food source have become dry, making it hard for us to find food. The animals we have hunted in the past have disappeared so we no longer know where to hunt…”

“Even the sacred mountains we think of as our mother have been arbitrarily torn up by them..” members of the indigenous Amungme tribe have literally watched their mountain disappear — mining has removed enough earth to lower the mountain by 400 feet within seven years.

For local people, the gold mine has been a nightmare – the dispossession of their lands, forced resettlement into malaria-ridden lowlands, pollution of rivers, and deprivation of the basic means of making a living. The environmental devastation wreaked by the mine and the lack of adequate compensation and benefits from the mine’s operations has fuelled support for the Free Papua Movement, which has waged a low-intensity guerrilla war for many years. It has also led to sporadic uprisings by local people, many which have been violently suppressed by the Indonesian military.

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November 10, 2007 by Lei.

Friday morning, we moved from Zebra Wall (3600m) to base camp (4000m), an easy two hour hike. To my surprise, 4000m here doesn’t feel bad at all, though by any standard, gaining 4000m elevation within a day is a very rapid ascent. So today, we skipped acclimatization, and headed for the summit at 4:30am.

Climbing

Carstensz is a big rocky mountain for which the summit can only be gained by “climbing” instead of “hiking” like many other big mountains. The climb is a mix of rock scrambling, and in some sections, up to 5.8 climbing. Since most vertical sections of the 800m climb already had fixed lines left by previous teams, we all moved un-roped, which made it very acrophobia-unfriendly when we moved along the sharp edge on the summit ridge.

Summit Ridge

Though 5.5-5.6 climb sounded trivial, it is quite strenuous when you have to climb 800m of that at 4800m elevation without much rest (there’s no belay break because of the fixed lines). So we used ascenders to aid through many sections to save strength. There were a few big gaps that I couldn’t jump over with my short legs, so I had to really make a 5.7 or 5.8 move to climb up, and those few moves would cost me 20 seconds of puff, puffing catching my breath.

Tyrolean Traverse on Summit Ridge

The most interesting and strenuous part of the climb is Tyrolean Traverse. Before this trip, I didn’t even know this word not to say the skill. Basically, in order to cross the largest gap on summit ridge, you have to climb a horizontal line of about 20m by hanging under the rope and pull yourself through. Hanging yourself in the air at 4800m itself is scary enough, not to say the upside-down positioning make it hard to breath at an already hard-to-breath altitude.

Lei on Summit

We summited about 10am, a pretty good speed. Then it started snowing and raining when we started descending. 800m drop requires endless rappel. The rain, the long stretch, the sharp rock, the complex route structure, the varying direction, all make repel in this situation a very, very, serious business. A split seconds relaxation could result in an accident. This is the first time I fully appreciated every little tip I gathered while I was learning the business – the comfort of harness, the helmet, the prussic, the extension of repel setup, and of course, keep yourself disciplined when you repeat the process so many times at a time that you are already tired and you are eager to escape to the safe ground.

Rappel

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