South America, Brazil, Recent New Routes

Publication Year: 2003.

Recent new routes. As of a few years ago the 1970 Leste Route on Pico Maior in Rio de Janeiro was the longest (700m, 5.8R) established. Harder routes were established, like Terra de Gigantes (550m, A4+) on Pedra do Sino, also in Rio, but the big faces were still untouched. After 2000, when sport climbing was increasingly in the news, big-wallers established such new routes as the North Face of Morro dos Cabritos (840m, Al 5.11b) in Teresópolis (Rio de Janeiro), by André Ilha, Flavio Wasniewki, Guilherme Conde, and Paulo Chaves; the West Face of Pedra Riscada (850m, A2+ 5.11R) in São José do Divino (Minas Gerais), by Eduardo Viana, Emerson Lampião, Edgardo Kaca and André Coutinho; Abuso (950m, 5.11b) on Morro dos Cabritos, Teresópolis (Rio de Janeiro), by Antonio Paulo Faria and Daniel Guimarães; Maria Nebulosa (1,040m, 5.8 A3) on Maria Com- prida Peak at Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro); Vai Mais Não Cai (Go But Don’t Fall) (1,260m, 5.11R) on Pedra Riscada, in São José do Divino (Minas Gerais), by Marcio Bortolusso, Chander Silva, Breno, Leandro, and Oscar. Nevertheless, at Aymore’s Sierra, on the border of Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais states, walls less than 300m high are still unnamed, since there are so many of them, and most of them still await first ascents. This information was gathered from Mountain Voices and Universo Vertical, Brazilian climbing newsletters/magazines.

Marius Bagnati, Brazil