First Contact

In 2001, two British ex-army officers set out to climb the unscaled face of Mandala – a remote mountain rising 15,400ft above the jungles of New Guinea. This is the extraordinary story of their trek through some of the world's most unexplored terrain. In the course of their 150-mile journey by dugout canoe and on foot through the largest swamp on Earth, Mark Anstice and Bruce Parry dodge police, encounter disgruntled ex head-hunters and are pursued by a previously undiscovered clan of the Korowai tribe. That is before they have even begun their arduous journey into the mountainous interior of the island to the unclimbed south face of the mountain. Mark Anstice tells the story of an expedition far tougher than either had imagined: one that would test the explorers, their friendship and their equipment to the limits.