Kudjip summited Mt. Wilhelm

On Friday, 12 missionaries and 2 PNG nationals traveled from Kudjip to Kundiawa to Kegsugal to start the trek to the summit of Mt. Wilhelm. We had some rain on Friday as we got to Kegsugal, so our trip to base camp was delayed some and we got a little wet, but it could have been much worse. 2 yrs ago when I went, I thought the trip up to base camp was tougher than the trip to the top. I was carrying a pack up the whole way and it probably didn't help, so this year I decided to pay the 20K and have someone carry it up for me. This was definitely the way to go, and I enjoyed the walk up to base camp so much more this year. We managed to get to base camp around 5pm, enough time to fill up our water bottles and have Bill try and catch a fish, before it got dark. We enjoyed a dinner of maggie noodles and crackers and then went to bed.

We started our journey around 0430 on Saturday, thankfully the

rain had stopped. At one of our first breaks, Susan made up a rendition of This is the Day that we climb Wilhelm, We will rejoice when we get to the top. It was cute. We had 4 guides so were split up into 3 groups of 4. Bill, Jonathon, and Cilla made up our group with Michael, our guide. Cilla was feeling sick, even before we started, but she toughed it out and showed a lot of courage as we made our way all the way to the top. She is now the 4th Radcliffe child to make their way to the top, and is one of the main reasons why this trip occurred to begin with. She made up a list of things she wanted to do before she left for college and Mt.

Wilhelm was on there, she can now check it off.

We got to the top after the other groups, but they were all up there, so we got to enjoy the summit together. We attempted to get a group photo, but the camera was on zoom, and the guide didn't know how to unzoom, so he got some of us. After we enjoyed a brief bite to eat up top, we started our way down. At times, coming down was harder than

going up, but we made it. We got down to base camp in enough time to walk to the car. This required an extra 2.5 hours of hiking, but then we just had to drive today (sunday) and not do any other hiking,

which was nice. We enjoyed a nice night at the home of Willie, one of our guides, and his family, who allowed us to sleep in one of their houses and their cookhouse. I got 10 hrs of much needed sleep, so I appreciated it. Then we made the 4 hr drive back to Kudjip today and rested.

Habakkuk 3:19 "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go to the heights."