Brazil ‘Big Free Climbs’

20 Apr Brazil ‘Big Free Climbs’

Posted at 09:20h in New courses by
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Brazil Big Walls

The Potential  Routes

Climbing around Rio

The trip would start by flying into Rio into one of its two  International airports. Enjoy the sights and sounds of the beaches arouznd the City. Often we stay at a Cocabana beach Hotel. Rio has more rock climbing in its boundaries than any other City. You can climb on single piutch granit crags or on lonmg multipitch routes to fine summits. The Sugar Loaf being one of the most famous.

Pedra Riscada

Pedra Riscada, the biggest wall in Brazil, a Huge 1200m Granite cliff in the area of Minas Gerais. There has been very few ascents of this mountain and only 3 recorded routes. Clearly a massive amount of potential for such a huge clean face. The last ascent was by a German team including Stephan Glowacz putting up the route called ‘a place of happiness’ at 7C+ shown below. There is a more amenable 1000m HVS called `Moon walker`which make an excellent two day climb.

The Area – Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
A beautiful area with huge monoliths of granite towering up from the ground as far as the eye can see, a climbers paradise! A huge amount of new routing potential and a perfect place to pioneer a big wall route.
 History
Minas Gerais was formed primarily by the colonists to mine precious rocks and metals including gems, gold and later diamonds. The word Minas translates to mines and Gerais, depending on the noun it is with, to mean to modify. Together the meaning is thought to be ‘general mines’.
 There are very few routes on the massif. 3 major climbs but the potential is staggering. Rock climbers around  Rio  have started to explore the vast granite area. Stephan Glowach and a team climbed there a few years ago putting up ‘Place of Happiness’. Short films of this climb can be seen on the net. The area hasnt seen a British team climb any major routes. So this will be  a first for any British team.
The granite faces will have some cracks but generally the huge faces are featureless from cracks and traditional protection. This is why in the past the other teams have placed bolt protection. Our aim is to find traditional style climbs first and if there are no inspiring lines climb ground up placing bolt protection. This is a style not many British climbers have adopted.Twid has experience of this style of climbing on many climbs. It requires a bold approach to leading. The leader climbs till they can stop, balance, hang on a sky hook. They then pull up a cordless power drill on a haul line and place a bolt. Not always an easy thing to do  after a long runout!
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