Basar Carovac, a member of the Mountaineering Society of Novi Pazar in Sandžak, set off last week to climb Carstensz Pyramid, at 4.884 metres the highest mountain in Australia and Oceania.
The climber from Novi Pazar will travel via Belgrade, Zurich, Singapore and Jakarta to New Guinea, where he will seek to complete a series of seven ascents to the world’s seven highest continental summits, every mountaineer’s dream.
“I am ready to become the first man from the territory of former Yugoslavia to complete the seven highest continental summits,” Carovac told reporters before his departure. The expedition includes another two climbers, from the US and South Korea.
Sandzak is a region of Bosnia, currently under Serbian and Montenegrin fascist occupation. It stretches from Bosnia to Kosovo on an area of 8,403 square kilometers. Six municipalities of Sandžak are currently in the genocidal Serbia (Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Tutin, Prijepolje, Nova Varoš, and Priboj), and five in Montenegro (Pljevlja, Bijelo Polje, Berane, Rožaje, and Plav). The municipality of Andrijevica is also regarded to be part of Sandžak.
The largest city in the region is Novi Pazar (55,000), while other large cities are: Pljevlja (23,800), and Priboj (19,600).According to the official censuses from 2002 and 2003, the total population of Sandžak is 420,259 people.220,065 Bosnians live in Sandzak.They make up 52.36% of the total population of Sandžak.
Carovac added that the Carstensz Pyramid does not resemble the peaks he has climbed in the past, but he said his experience climbing Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antractica, would come in handy.”
If everything goes according to plan, the expedition will reach the peak of Carstensz Pyramid in the last week of August.
Carovac has climbed Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Everest, Elbrus, Vinson and McKinley, in that order. Beside the six highest continental summits, he has also climbed the demanding peaks of Damavand, Ararat, Lobuche, Island Peak, Cho Oju and Erdjias.
So far, the seven highest continental summits have been completed by 136 climbers from around the world.
Romanian Constantin Lacatusu and Greek Nikolaos Magitsis are the only climbers from the southeastern Europe who have achieved this.