20 August 2004

Sugar Loaf
(Pao de Acucar)

Here's the tram station where tourists can catch a ride to the top.

We began hiking up Urca. It was a rather steep slippery trail, but lots of fun.

Margie and our guide, Flavio. He started out very quiet, but we eventually learned that he studied biology in college, and dances forro.

Neat bright orange fungus. It looked more neon than the picture shows.

When we got near the top of Urca, there were a bunch of soldiers randomly standing around. We hypothesize that they were doing some sort of mountain training.

We started off climbing a 5.8+/5.9 route called the Italian Route. After the first of six pitches, I didn't think I could make it to the top. Margie also forgot to clean the quickdraws coming up, so we went back down and hiked over to an easier route.

The view from the Italian route was breathtaking. I don't think I've ever felt so disoriented by heights before. It took effort to trust the rope.

Monkeys! Cute little buggers.

Apparently they have these little monkeys instead of squirrels or chipmonks. They make little squeaking sounds when they beg for food.

Margie and I loved them, but I'm sure the locals think they're pests.

Eventually we actually started climbing! Woohoo!

I got to go last after Margie forgot to clean the first time.

She took a ton of pictures. I'm sparing you most of them, but they create a kind of cool time lapse photo effect.

Margie did most of the belaying, and after the first pitch of the Italian Route, I did all the cleaning.

I had to fight my way around a tangle of ropes on the second pitch.

Can you see the climber on the rock just above the big whirlpool?

How about now? We thought that was pretty hardcore.

Margie at the top of the first climb.

The only picture with both of us together! I think it's a cute one though. :)

We took a bit of a break before hiking up to the final pitch.

The other side of that rock is almost as sheer as it looks.

Margie climbing up the last pitch. Aside from the overhang at the top it was a pretty easy climb with all the cracks.

Look, we've been magically transported into a wild mountain range!

That just happens to be in the middle of Rio. Great city, isn't it? That's Copacabana to the left.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures once we got to the top. It was a little weird to walk around the glitzy tourist spot in our sweaty, dirty climbing clothes. However, it was definitely nice to get to the top and eat ice cream while watching the sunset, then catch a ride in the tram back down. What took us close to five hours to climb took less than five minutes to get down by tram.