The Jayawijaya mountain range in Papua, home to Oceania’s highest peak Puncak Jaya, also known as Carstensz Pyramid, rises between two cloud layers in an undated stock photo.
JAKARTA: The bodies of female climbers Elsa Laksono and Lilie Wijayanti Poegiono, both 59, who died on Saturday (March 1) due to acute mountain sickness while descending Puncak Jaya in Mimika, Central Papua, were flown to Jakarta on Monday.
Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Billyandha Hildiario Budiman said Elsa and Lilie’s bodies were transported aboard a Boeing 737-900ER operated by Lion Air from Mozes Kilangin Airport in Timika, the capital of Mimika regency, to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, kompas.com reported.
Billyandha said Elsa’s body was evacuated on Sunday morning and Lilie’s body was evacuated on Monday morning, both to Mimika General Regional Hospital for washing before they were flown to Jakarta, accompanied by two friends and a representative from adventure operator PT Tropis Cartenz Jaya.
Elsa and Lilie were descending the 4,884-metre mountain with several other climbers on Friday when the weather worsened, bringing snow and high winds.
Also known as Carstensz Pyramid, Puncak Jaya is located in the Jiwawijaya Mountains and is “one of the few tropical or equatorial mountains in the world with glaciers”, according to National Geographic. It is the highest peak in Oceania and the world’s highest island peak.
The two climbers were school friends and graduates of St. Albertus Catholic Senior High School in Malang, East Java. The pair had set out to climb the Seven Summits of Indonesia, referring to the highest peaks on each major island, and Puncak Jaya was their last peak to achieve the feat.
Elsa and Lilie also had another mission: to install a plaque to commemorate their schoolmate Hanafi Tanoto, who died while climbing the very same peak last year, which they accomplished before starting their descent.
Indira Alaika, who was in the same climbing group as Elsa and Lilie, confirmed their deaths in an Instagram post on Sunday, tempo.co reported.
Indira added that she and two other climbers, Alvin Reggy Perdana and Saroni, had also experienced hypothermia, but survived.
“The surviving climbers were stuck and had to spend the night along the summit ridge [...],” she wrote in her post, before they were saved on Monday by a mountain rescue team.
According to Indira, all five were a part of a 20-strong group of five guides, seven Indonesian climbers, six foreign climbers and two rangers from Lorentz National Park, and set out for Puncak Jaya on Friday from the so-called Yellow Valley.
The group acclimatised on Thursday to avoid altitude sickness before attempting to summit, according to another member.
Indonesian Mountain Guide Association (APGI) chairman Rahman Mukhlis said in a statement on Sunday that the group’s last climber arrived at the peak at around 2pm local time.
The battery of the handheld transceiver the group carried was low, however, “so there was no communication”, he said.
Separately, Robertus Robet of the Indonesian Climbing Federation (FPTI) highlighted a need to develop stringent climbing regulations for Puncak Jaya, noting that four climbers, including Elsa and Lilie, had died on the mountain since September 2024.
Robertus also advised climbers not to reduce the duration of acclimatisation for any reason. While one day was usually enough for most trained climbers, this might pose a risk for amateurs, he added. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
