“This is not just a weekend trip up to the summit, it takes 4 days for strong walkers. It is an adventure, and you travel through absolutely incredible country that is different than anywhere else on earth. The rugged beauty is captivating ...definitely ‘off-the-beaten-track’.

From Mt Hagen to Kundiwa and then through the spectacular Chimbu Gorge which can only be described as amazing and must be seen to be believed what was once a sea bed has been tilted to about a 60 deg angle. The river has cut straight through the middle of it, but this is not the most amazing part. What defies all sense of physics is that there are gardens and gardeners clinging to preposterous slopes.

Upon arrival at Keglsugl we stay the night at a guest house owned by Ken and Betty Higgins. They farm many vegetables including strawberries and rabbits & trout. Next day we commence walking through the forest and after 2 hours we again glimpse Keglsugl from a small lookout. From here we walk along a grassy valley flanked by forest covered ridges and climb up the side of waterfalls. The hut is on the shore of Lake Piunde which is where we make our base camp for the next three nights.

Early morning we begin our hike. The trail is moderate, steep and muddy in places. We pass through forest blanketed in moss and approx. 11,000 feet. We step out into another world. A “U” shaped glacier carved valley of alpine grassland dotted with tree ferns against a back drop of forest and rock out crops. It is the basin formed by one of these cliffs where we will spend the night on the shores of Lake Piunde at 11,700 feet …those who are keen can bath in the icy waters.

A very early start is made in order to be at the summit as dawn breaks. The climb goes past the wreck of a B17 bomber which crashed into the mountain slopes during WW2.

From the summit (14,800 feet) weather permitting, a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains and valleys unfold. Reaching as far as Kar Kar Island in the north and the Huon Gulf in the east and the mountains in the southern Highlands in the west and then return to the base camp by the same route for a well deserved rest...”