Two Climbers Dead on Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), One of the Seven Summits

When American mountain guide Garrett Madison encountered three Indonesian climbers huddled together on a ridgeline near the summit of Puncak Jaya (16,024ft/4,884m)—also known as Carstensz Pyramid—on March 1, they were in dire straits. “They were extremely confused,” Madison told me. “They’d spent the night up there, and were disoriented and fatigued, definitely hypothermic.”

The trio of stranded climbers were soaked to the bone from the rain and snow, struggling to survive with temperatures overnight at or below freezing. It was unclear how long the three—male guide Alvin Reggy Perdana, female client Indira Alaika, and male client Saroni (many Indonesians have no surnames)—had been hunkered down on the exposed ridge. Judging by summit reports, they were up there for at least 18 hours.

While on their way up to provide aid, Madison and fellow rescuers Tashi Lakpa Sherpa and Ben Jones, had already come across the bodies of two other climbers, Lilie Wijayati and Elsa Laksono, who had perished during the night. “Rigor mortis had set in,” Madison says. “They’d been dead for some time.”

In a tragic twist of fate, the two dead women, both 59, were high school classmates from St. Albertus Catholic Senior High School in Malang, a city in East Java. They had climbed the mountain, in part, to install a plaque commemorating a fellow classmate who had died there last year, 60-year-old Hanafi Tantono.

Climbing Puncak Jaya, aka Cartensz Pyramid

Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain on the island of New Guinea, and the highest peak in both Indonesia and all of Oceania. Its status as one of the “Seven Summits”—the highest peaks on the seven continents—has long resulted in outsized attention. But its location in the remote, volatile Indonesian province of Papua makes access tenuous. From 2019 to 2024, the peak was closed to climbing because of armed conflicts between Papuan separatist fighters and the Indonesian government.

Though relatively low in elevation, Puncak Jaya is by some standards the most technically difficult of the Seven Summits. The mountain is typically summited in a single day from Base Camp (14,107ft/4,299m), after a few days of acclimatization, but reaching its peak by the standard route requires navigating rock pitches at roughly 5.6 (4c). Since its reopening last year, two climbers have already died, Tantono—who died of a heart attack—and a Chinese climber, Dong Fei, who fell after failing to attach himself to a fixed line.

The March 1 Incident and Rescue

All five climbers involved in the March 1 disaster were part of the same expedition: a 20-person team of climbers and guides from outfitter Indonesia Expeditions. The group reportedly began climbing at roughly 4:00 a.m. local time on February 28. Rahman Mukhlis, chairman of the Indonesian Mountain Guide Association (AGPI), told press that the final climbers in the party reached the summit at 2:00 p.m.

Weather worsened as the day wore on, with high winds, rain, sleet, and cold temperatures. Two groups of descending climbers—the three on the summit ridge, as well as Wijayati and Laksono, who were accompanied by their own Indonesian guide, Nurhuda—became too exhausted to descend. Low on battery, the group’s radio communicator could not effectively communicate, so Nurhuda, who was also beginning to suffer from hypothermia, left his clients and descended on his own to request aid. He reached camp at 8:45 p.m. to report the situation.

After learning of the emergency, Nepalese guide Dawa Gyalje Sherpa headed up to attempt to rescue Wijayati and Laksono. The two women had made it down to 300 or so vertical feet above Base Camp (roughly 45 minutes up trail), but were already on the edge of death when Dawa Gyalje found them. “They died in his arms,” Madison says. “Dawa covered them up and descended alone.”

Elsa Laksono, one of the two victims in the March 1 Puncak Jaya incident

The other victim, Lilie Wijayati, was Laksono’s longtime friend, former classmate, and adventure partner

Madison woke up at 6:30 a.m. that morning to an emergency call. “I didn’t know any of this had happened in the night. I was asleep,” he explains. “By the time I woke up, we had word that two people were dead, three were stuck up on the route. There was some talk of a SAR team on the way, but there weren’t any helicopters flying, so I knew it would be a while. So I did what I could to help.”

Shortly after Madison woke up, he–along with Tashi Lakpa (of 14 Peaks Expeditions) and Jones (of Alpine Ascents)—grabbed rope, spare clothes, food, hot water, and altitude medicine, and began their way up the route. They were well-acclimatized and the weather was clear, so the trio made good time. They passed the two women who had perished, and reached the summit ridge well before noon. There, they found the three stranded climbers, provided hot water with electrolytes, energy gels, and the altitude medicine Dexamethasone, then helped them into dry clothes. Madison tied himself into the older Saroni—another St. Albertus alum—while Jones and Tashi Lakpa descended with Alaika and the guide, Perdanda.

The group was back in camp by mid-afternoon, and Madison noted that all three individuals appeared to be recovering well. Judging from her recent Instagram story, Alaika was later hospitalized to treat hypothermia and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).

In addition to honoring their late classmate Tantono, the deceased women, Wijayati and Laksono, were on a personal mission to climb the “Seven Summits of Indonesia,” the highest peaks on each of the country’s seven major islands. Puncak Jaya was last on their list. Wijayati would have been the oldest woman to do so.

What Went Wrong on Puncak Jaya?

Although Puncak Jaya is a “technical” peak, the mountain’s rock pitches are all fixed, and the Tyrolean traverse formerly required to surmount gaps in the summit ridge has since been replaced with a cable crossing, similar to a via ferrata. Today, most incidents result from altitude-related illness, poor weather conditions, or resulting hypothermia.

Madison, who runs the expedition company Madison Mountaineering and has a long history of guiding on the Seven Summits, had summited Puncak Jaya with his clients a couple days prior. He says the incident was a clear example of failure to abide by a good turnaround time. Puncak Jaya is typically summited in 10 to 15 hours, so the Indonesia Expeditions party appears to have started early enough (4:00 a.m.), but conditions on the peak are known to deteriorate in the afternoon. Their summit time of 2:00 p.m. was too late to ensure a safe descent. Instead of continuing to push for the summit, Madison says the group should have made the call to turn back earlier, upon realizing that their pace was too slow.

According to Madison, the rescued climbers’ gear and apparel appeared adequate, but minimal. “I didn’t see any down jackets, and I don’t think they had any emergency bivy gear, either,” he says. But he reinforces that ultimately, the accident resulted from their pace. “It’s like swimming out from the beach into the ocean,” Madison explains. “We can only swim out to a point where we have enough energy to swim back. We don’t want to use more than half our energy going out. They pushed so hard to get to the summit that they didn’t have enough left in the tank to get down.”

Incidents of this nature are unfortunately common on popular, commercialized peaks like Puncak Jaya. These mountains require an enormous amount of time, money, training, and effort to attempt, so it’s easy to fall prey to summit fever. I reported on an almost identical scenario on Alaska’s Denali (20,308ft) last year, wherein three unguided Malaysians became trapped near the summit for several days after a slow ascent, and one froze to death.

Madison, however, adds that at the end of the day, Wijayati and Laksono were paying clients and had hired guides for a reason. “Guides are supposed to be looking out for their clients,” he says. “If clients are looking weak, and not able to descend in good form under their own power, guides have to make the hard call to turn a group back. That’s your job.”

The incident also underscores the importance of properly vetting mountain guides. Whenever possible, climbers looking for a guide should seek out reputable, verifiable international credentials, such as an IFMGA (International Federation of Mountain Guides Association) certification. This isn’t always easy, though. Outside of Europe and North America, many countries (including Indonesia) do not have IFMGA member associations, and as a result, evaluating the training of a local guide becomes more challenging. National standards may vary widely from country to country. (In Indonesia, the equivalent certifying body is the Indonesian Mountain Guide Association.)

Still, Madison doesn’t fault Nurhuda for leaving the women and descending on his own once he became hypothermic. He had reportedly summited Puncak Jaya 17 times.“It’s a hard call,” Madison says. “Stay with them and die, or descend to mount a rescue? It’s tough. I think getting down and saving yourself, trying to do something positive, is the best option.”

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