[Gimpilator]

I invited several people to join me in Columbia. Dave was the only taker. When we discovered that the peaks we wanted were all closed and illegal, I switched the plan last-minute to Brazil. Dave was still game. suggested soundtrack 12-7 Morro do Corcovado – 2329' For good tidings, we went to see Jesus first, before setting out for the tougher peaks. The 98 foot high statue is iconic for Brazil and fairly well known around the globe. We managed to hike up the road from the parking area without getting scammed by the paid van service, but we were still badly overcharged for parking nearby.

the redeemer

Morro dos Cabritos

Morro Dois Irmãos and Pedra da Gávea

Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar)

Pão de Açúcar – 1299' I have wanted to climb Sugarloaf for more than a decade. It’s another famous peak on the edge of the Atlantic in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of traveling with a bunch of climbing gear, I hired a guide company for the short climb. Unfortunately visiting Christ had taken longer than anticipated, and then we had a big problem with parking near the beach. We were more than an hour late, and the guide was only willing to wait the first hour. Discussing our options, Dave decided to climb the route without rope. I was disappointed to miss out on the climb, but also not at all interested in soloing anything when there was a cable lift option. The main thing for me is to get the summit. So I went up the non-glorious way.

Morro do Corcovado

12-8 Morro dos Cabritos – 1257' December (summer) is the rainy season. We had padded the trip with several extra days in case of rain. So far the forecast looked pretty good, the exception of Dec 9, so we saved that for the first long drive. Morro dos Cabritos is a small peak in the Copacabana area, with slabby cliffs on all sides and dense jungle on top.

Golias and Christ

As we discovered, it is not very popular and the way up is brushy and steep with some exposed sections. To make matters more interesting, there are little fire ants on much of the vegetation, so the more you connect with it, the more you get stung. We followed some concrete walkways build onto the cliffs and some of the steepest staircases I’ve seen anywhere (class 3).

class 3 stairs

Above the stairs the path was slippery mud until it leveled off. To get to the summit we did a short but very dense bushwhack. Some kind of plant had 3 inch long black thorns. I stepped on a branch of this plant and it broke clean, with half of it swinging up and smacking my hand. Some of those thorn tips are still stuck in my hand, 11 days later.

3 inch black thorns

bushwhack to the summit

Sugarloaf

viewpoint (not the summit)

vegetation hides the significant exposure

Morro Dois Irmãos – 1768' Driving to the trailhead is the crux. This trail is nicely developed with several fresh cocout water stands along the way. This peak is popular for a reason.

Dave was the first to notice some giant lizards, almost a meter long, which he dubbed “Godzilla”. There were also numerous types of butterflies, very colorful, but too swift to photograph. The summit view is probably the best of any peak I have done in South America. We spent some time there watching the condors and magnificent frigates twirling effortlessly in the updrafts.

stellar views

Morro dos Cabritos with Sugarloaf behind

Pedra da Gávea next trip

condors and magnificent frigates

12-9 Driving/rain day. Dave got a bonus peak while I kept watch over the rental car.

The wild capybara is the largest rodent on earth, like a large dog but more rounded at the corners.

12-10 Pico da Bandeira – 9485' This was our first big objective. It had rained heavily during the night and was predicted to do so again in the afternoon. So we planned for an early start. But Dave had severe stomach issues during the night. He was perpetually on the verge of vomit, strange considering we had eaten mostly the same things. Usually I’m the one to get sick on these trips, when nobody else does. I suggested we could stay another day and see if he was feeling better after rest. He declined. We drove up to the entrance gate at 6:40am much later than we had planned, but it didn’t open until 7am. The road above the gate was rough, and slippery wet in our 2WD Jeep. We could have made it to the end with 4WD.

we discovered many types of orchids in Brazil

We walked the road and then the trail. Dave was slow and retching along the way. There wasn’t much I could do to help him other than offer some breaks, which we would normally just skip.

The upper route was engulfed in clouds and we crossed some nice sticky slabs. Dave was struggling near the top, but he’s stubborn and not going to let illness prevent him from a big summit like this one. He took a well deserved rest at the summit cross.

Pedra Da Mina summit

tiny snake, fresh out of the egg

12-11 Driving day.

12-12 Pico do Garrafão – 7740' The peaks we did on this day were impromptu, after we discovered an issue with the original plan. After another rainy night, the mud road to the trailhead was a bit interesting, but by now Dave had plenty of experience driving Brazil jungle roads.

The clouds prevented us from views during ascent, but the numerous wildflowers more than made up for that. We examined several potential summits and found the highest to be some rocks about 20 feet from a small weather station tower.

summit

Pico Serra Negra – 8438' Dave noted that the last (and only) ascent of this peak on peakbagger was in 1989. I wondered what condition the roads and trail might be in. This was one of our favorite hikes of the trip for the variety of plants and overall ascetic. There’s a round summit boulder, higher than the rest.

orchid

best sausage ever, you have no idea...

12-13 Pico da Pedra da Mina – 9180' Our second large objective. High clearance recommended. Like many roads in Brazil, lot’s of recent rain could make this road impassable for some time. We encountered a locked gate and had to walk further than the Mclellan’s. In the first few miles of trail, we encountered some very thick vegetation and the trail all but disappeared. We began to wonder if the route was officially closed this time of year and that might be why the gate was locked.

red lichen

Overall this is a long route with a fair amount of gain. It was hotter than anticipated at elevation and my choice to bring only two liters was folly, but fortunately Dave had been wise to bring a filter, while I left mine in the car. There was an astounding variety of colorful butterflies in the lower jungle.

After crossing some creeks, the way turned uphill. There were some watercourse channels through red mud which were very challenging to walk on. Once we climbed higher we onto gray stones, extremely coarse and solid. Good quality class 3. We passed over a few high points along the ridge. The heat had been stifling, with not much breeze until the crest.

On the summit, knowing this was our last ultra of 2023, I contemplated the year. It was my 31st P2000m of the year, a new record. If it had been flawless, there were 8 more planned for, or tried and failed on, 4 in Argentina and 4 in Indonesia. Summer blizzards, unconsolidated snow, active eruptions, illness, and bureaucratic red-tape had taken their toll on my success ratio. That’s life. Just have to go back under better conditions. Here's a couple pics from 2 of the fails:

Petter got snow blindness in a summer blizzard on Cerro el Manchao. We descended 2000 meters in the dark, while he could still see a little bit.

Solo at 20,670 feet on Mercedario, just below knee-deep unconsolidated snow

A wind destroyed tent, part of a tragic story that we witnessed.

During the descent I was finally able to photograph one of the types of butterflies we had been enjoying, because it had just emerged from a chrysalis and it's wings were not fully formed or dry. We also had fun watching leaf cutter ants on this peak and several others.

new wings and a new life

leaf cutters

[Gimpilator]

12-14 Pico dos Marins – 7943' We didn’t know anything about this peak going into it, or even if we could drive there. To our great satisfaction it turned out to be the best peak of the trip. We drove in from the south and parked near a pass west of the peak.

obrigatorio sh1t tube

up this ridge

Part of the initial route follows and old road with slippery mud. Eventually the west ridges narrows. There is a lot of route finding and slab scrambling, even before the upper valley. When we came to the upper valley we could see two peaks. Studying our maps, we found that they did not agree on which was higher, so we would have to do both.

class 4, maybe?

Climbing up the first peak there was a bit of a labyrinth of slabs and ledges and minor exposure. The rock quality was so excellent that it was entirely enjoyable the whole way. A fantastic peak!

final slab labyrinth

solitary summit cockroach

Marins summit

slab with a drop underneath

Marinzinho over there

Pico Do Marinzinho – 7753' To get to the second peak we ascended a wide slab ridge and then descended into a small bog choked with tussocks. On the far side we scrambled up class 3 to some ledges and traversed back to the highest crest. The summit boulders were now visible further down the ridge. Looking back towards Marins, it was a very impressive sight.

climbing above the bog

looking back at Marins

Dave near the summit boulders

What appeared as the highest boulder on the left was actually not. There was a higher one behind it and we climbed that one. This too is an excellent peak. We both got a little fried by all the hours of UV light.

Marins

Marinzinho

back down the ridge

Marins

orchid

That afternoon I contacted Petter and Deividas to see if they could help decipher which peak might be higher. Ultimately it was Jonathan de Ferranti who was experience enough to just analyze the elevation data in my track log. Marins is indeed higher.

all for me

12-15 Morro Tira Chapéu – 6850' Tira Chapéu is the highest summit on a broad sprawling collection of hills which comprise the Bocaina Range highlands. After a few minutes of studying his phone at the trailhead, Dave suggested that we try an alternate approach which seemed shorter. Great idea. We cut the mileage from 8 miles to just under 6, which was good because a thunderstorm rolled in right after we finished.

The route is grassy. Shorts were necessary in the heat, but in a different season, pants would have been better. There was a very short class 3 crux on this route. We passed through some short jungle sections before the top. Several large summit boulder compete for highest.

orchid

Brazil sausage is not to be missed

12-16 Pedra Do Pontal – 328' Since the weather had cooperated so nicely, we had an extra day at the end. We started with an island hike I found the night before. Super fun and short. Depending on the tide, you might be walking in the ocean for awhile to reach the island.

Pico da Tijuca – 3356' The forecast called for 96 degree heat on this day. I suggested we scrap the long hike, which was our original plan, so Dave found this good alternative. The park gate is closed at night until 8am. Nice trail system and some steep stairs cut out of the slab near the top. We startled a coatimundi very high on the peak, more tan colored and smaller than the gray one I saw in Costa Rica.

Again, the Brazil maps in this area are somewhat misleading and inaccurate, 3rd day in row with the same issue of non-consensus among map sets. Global Topo indicated two peaks to the southwest and one even had a higher contour. So we went over there, a matter of some miles.

looking back at Tijuca

The first bonus peak was class 3. The highest boulder was technical. Standing on the 2nd highest, we were still a couple meters lower. Going around the left and right side of this boulder only made it a bigger harder climb.

summit boulder from a col

down on the boulders right side

The second bonus peak had 4 or 5 large technical boulders, and also many thick lines of fast moving ants, which we were careful not to offend. Of the two boulders we though to be highest, Dave was able to climb one by pulling on loose mosses and jungle vines. He reported from the top a variety of spiny plants, so I did not bother to go up there.

the other contender

Dave scales messy class 5 vegetation

attempting the other boulder

The other contender he tried to climb by using a Nalgene as aid, but without climbing shoes, and a rope to get down, we were sort of out of luck. The good news is that our GPS data shows Tijuca is certainly the highest of the 3 by about 100 meters, despite all these 10 meter boulders.

Papilio lycrophon

a bird-sized swallowtail

I’d like thank Dave for being a super-solid travel partner and indefatigable driver. We both got the Brazil specific driving permit, but to save on insurance cost, he did all the driving. And it was complicated, especially in Rio de Janeiro.

[zimmertr]

Beautiful place

[Stefan]

that looks gorgeous!

[tekewin]

Wild stuff in South America! Thanks for the great write ups. Congrats on the prom record.

[Roly Poly]

You must hold the world record for number of peaks climbed. I’d be curious to know what the record is but since you do it full time you must be pretty close to being a record holder.

[Gimpilator]

Thanks Zimmerman, Stefan, and Keith. Rolypoly- You bring up an interesting category, but that is not my aim, since I take a specific interest in each peak individually. In theory, it could happen if I live long enough. As you can see here, there are many people ahead of me in the numbers, including several of my friends from WA. Keep in mind that not everyone uses peakbagger or even records their ascents. People like Stefan who commented above, and also Fay Pullen, both Washingtonians, would also be on there. People with the most peaks