Dedo de Deus

Last weekend I climbed a mountain called Dedo de Deus (translates to "finger of god"), which is in a mountain range called Serra dos Orgãos, 2 hours from Rio. Its close to a region that was recently devastated by rains, and from the summit and the drive you can see the traces of it, its impressive - huge tears in the mountain sides...

This climb meant a lot to me because its a very iconic mountain here... its the mountain that "started" climbing in Brazil (was first summited in 1912).

The route we went up is pretty easy, and was conquered in 1944 (the route we did is called "Leste"). Its hardest pitch is maybe a 5.7-5.8, and other than that its a lot of chimneys... the thing is, it feels so exposed. Some pitches you go, go, go, and there's like, no bolts. Or one big chimney with a bolt only on the top of it. Ok, its pretty impossible to fall, but still... as I tried leading some parts of it, it felt really really scary. I'm not used to lead on this type of climbs... which actually feels like you are in a real mountain and are certainly more remote then most 3-4 pitch routes I'm used to doing smack in the middle of Rio. I felt confident because I was with a really experienced friend. And it was an easy route. He'd actually just soloed(!) it one week prior to us going.

The crux is actually on a variation of the original climb (to avoid a nasty chimney called blackout which is dark, damp, and filled with bird poo).

We got to the summit in 4 hours (the first 1.5 hours were just the approach. The approach is a real bitch - steep hike under thick canopies (no sun but no breeze either) then pulling yourself up these cables for maybe 100m (this part is in the sun. Sun+ steel cables=blisters).