Venezuela

Venezuela Acopan Tepui, Perdidos en Venezuela, and Piedra de Culimacare, Conio Crack. D ecem ­ ber 2007: Two weeks in to th e V enezuelan A m azon by bongo b o a t, M att O th m er, Brazilian clim bers D aniel G uim araes and Eric Silvestrin, and I blazed a trail th rough dense virgin sw am p w ith six in d ig en o u s Yanomamis, still days from the base o f o u r objective, the striking unclim bed east face o f C erro A ratitiyope. T he w ater level dropped six feet in two days, due to lack o f rain, guaran teein g th a t fu rth e r progress tow ard A ratitiyope w ould stran d us in the dry season, weeks from civilization, up an A m azonian creek w ith no water. It was a sad b u t easy decision to tu rn back. Tricky m aneuverin g got us back to bigger rivers, and we visited a sm aller granite d om e, P iedra de C ulim acare, by the C asiquiare C anal. We p u t up C o n io C rack (II 5.10+ A3-) on th e steepest side o f the dom e, an d then b ro u g h t o u r beloved indige­ nous b o at driver, Flaco, up th e back side so he could get his first aerial view o f th e jungle canopy. Two weeks later we were back in P uerto Ayacucho. I cam e dow n w ith a terrible fever, b u t a sim ple (and free) m alaria test cam e back negative. I soon recovered, and we were in m otion on an o th er epic 2 6 -h o u r bus ride to the G ran Sabana, near Angel Falls. In m id-January 2008 we hired a four-seat propeller plane in Santa Elena to fly us to Yunek, a rem ote indigenous village at the base o f Acopan Tepui. After friendly n egotiations w ith the Pem on people, m ore h acking th ro u g h th e jungle, a close e n co u n te r w ith a fer-de-lance (pit viper), and five long days on the wall itself, we reached the top o f o u r new route, Perdidos en Venezuela (Lost in Venezuela; 1,300', V 5 .11 C 2+). We struggled th ro u g h high w inds, scorpioninfested cracks, loose rock, a sheared rope, and a fall logged while interview ing w ith N ational G eographic Radio. The clim b tu rn e d o u t to be o f the highest quality. At the su m m it the A m a­ zonian sandstone had w eathered into wild, soaring shapes preventing easy travel. The only way dow n was to rappel the route. Perdidos ascends a d ih ed ral system on th e pillar above o u r base cam p, ca 100m to the right o f a p ro m in en t waterfall on the southeast prow o f Acopan. It is ju st to the south (left) o f the beautiful 2003 British route, U nate Arête. This zone is just left o f Pizza, Chocolate y Cerveza (A rran-A rran-R angel, 2003), w hich is left o f th e n o rth pillar (h o m e to P u rg ato ry an d the D em pster-Libecki variation; see A A J 2007). O u r first three pitches involved tricky aid and free clim bing to get on top o f a small w ater­ fall, aro u n d a roof, and to the dihedral system. T hen cam e 1,000' o f unbelievable free clim bing. We clim bed the route in 13 pitches, alth o u g h we recom m end 11. We placed tw o bolts at each

an ch o r for rappels, and a n o th e r five on th e ro u te itself. T here are great bivy spots on to p of pitches four and six, and m ost belays are also fairly com fortable. A

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F ir e s t o n e ,

AAC