Climbing Mt Albert-Edward

I am planning to climb Mt Albert-Edward later this year and am keen to hear from people who have done it. (I have done a search of TT and it did not turn up any references to Mt Albert-Edward.)

In particular I am interested in finding out:

- Is it straight forward to find a guide in Woitape if I just turn up?

- Is it possible to stay in villages for the nights out of Woitape, or do I need to take a tent to camp out?

- How many days should I allow for the hike? Is four days enough? Day 1 - Arrive, Day 2 - hike up the mountain, Day 3 - down the mountain, Day 4 - leave Woitape, or something like that?

- Is it worth flying into Ononge and hiking from there to Woitape on Day 1?

All info and experiences gratefully received.

You would be lucky to find anyone who has climbed the mountain. Unless some old timers are reading this. When I saw the heading you had me reaching for my old copy of Bushwalking in PNG (1983 edition) where it is listed. In that they say fly to Woitape and get a guide from there. I imagine it should be fairly straight forward, as long you offer some cash a local will usually be procured, make sure you negoiate a rate before setting off, somewhere around 70-80 kina a day perhaps? Skim reading the text in the guide I can't see where they say how long the climb would take, although it is mentioned that huts can be used (whether they are still there or not is a good question). Get the maps though, the 1:100000 Wasu (8380) and Albert-Edward (8381) - these in themselves were done in the early 70s by the Australian Administration of the time, so are out of date, but with, at least (though not covered with the "obscured by cloud" message) will show you the contours. Make sure you let us know how the climb went.

Actually just reading to the end of the chapter in the old guide it says allow six days from Woitape (you can do it in five but would rushed). Sounds like it may be a bit more involved than you thought.