Acopan Tepui, Perdidos en Venezuela, and Piedra de Culimacare, Conio Crack. December 2007: Two weeks into the Venezuelan Amazon by bongo boat, Matt Othmer, Brazilian climbers Daniel Guimaraes and Eric Silvestrin, and I blazed a trail through dense virgin swamp with six indigenous Yanomamis, still days from the base of our objective, the striking unclimbed east face of Cerro Aratitiyope. The water level dropped six feet in two days, due to lack of rain, guaranteeing that further progress toward Aratitiyope would strand us in the dry season, weeks from civilization, up an Amazonian creek with no water. It was a sad but easy decision to turn back.

Tricky maneuvering got us back to bigger rivers, and we visited a smaller granite dome, Piedra de Culimacare, by the Casiquiare Canal. We put up Conio Crack (II 5.10+ A3-) on the steepest side of the dome, and then brought our beloved indigenous boat driver, Flaco, up the back side so he could get his first aerial view of the jungle canopy. Two weeks later we were back in Puerto Ayacucho. I came down with a terrible fever, but a simple (and free) malaria test came back negative. I soon recovered, and we were in motion on another epic 26-hour bus ride to the Gran Sabana, near Angel Falls.

In mid-January 2008 we hired a four-seat propeller plane in Santa Elena to fly us to Yunek, a remote indigenous village at the base of Acopan Tepui. After friendly negotiations with the Pemon people, more hacking through the jungle, a close encounter with a fer-de-lance (pit viper), and five long days on the wall itself, we reached the top of our new route, Perdidos en Venezuela (Lost in Venezuela; 1,300', V 5.11 C2+). We struggled through high winds, scorpion- infested cracks, loose rock, a sheared rope, and a fall logged while interviewing with National Geographic Radio. The climb turned out to be of the highest quality. At the summit the Amazonian sandstone had weathered into wild, soaring shapes preventing easy travel. The only way down was to rappel the route.

Perdidos ascends a dihedral system on the pillar above our base camp, ca 100m to the right of a prominent waterfall on the southeast prow of Acopan. It is just to the south (left) of the beautiful 2003 British route, Unate Arête. This zone is just left of Pizza, Chocolate y Cerveza (Arran-Arran-Rangel, 2003), which is left of the north pillar (home to Purgatory and the Dempster-Libecki variation; see AAJ 2007).

Our first three pitches involved tricky aid and free climbing to get on top of a small waterfall, around a roof, and to the dihedral system. Then came 1,000' of unbelievable free climbing. We climbed the route in 13 pitches, although we recommend 11. We placed two bolts at each anchor for rappels, and another five on the route itself. There are great bivy spots on top of pitches four and six, and most belays are also fairly comfortable.

Asa Firestone, AAC