Trip Report
We were on the Ilha Grande in Brazil for New Year's and after recovering on the beach from my hangover the previous day, I got up early
to climb this fine looking peak out of the village of Abraao. It was a 20 minutes hike to the trailhead at about 150m or so. From that point a fairly narrow but clearly defined trail led the way up to the base of the mountain
It took me about 90 minutes to get to the base, but what a workout it was. The vegetation was very dense and almost no light reached the forest floor. Or fresh air for that matter. Considering that at 6 in the morning
it was already well in the 30s and the humidity was clearly about 90 percent, I felt like I was working out in a Sauna. Clearly enough, when I got to the intersection at the base of the mountain, might hands
looked like I had been in a bathtub for a few hours, very wrinkly and white. I can definetely say that in the Sierra I have never sweated as much. It clearly was a Sauna!.
I first walked up to the base of the mountains from where it was obvious why the mountain got its name. I briefly considered climbing up the steep rock climbing section, but decided that the fact that
I did not have a rope, nor a climbing partner, nor the prospect of other people potentially coming up here today (although I ran into a few guys on my way down) probably where not the right conditions for such an untertaking.
I therefore returned back to the intersection and from there walked passed the summit to the backside of the mountain, where an easy class 1 trail led all the way to the summit. The high point
itself was very exposed, sharp drop off on almost all sides and it reminded me of a miniature Half Dome. Unfortunatly, the views were not very good, as clouds impeded the impression that I was on an island.
I managed to glimpse the hostal and the village of Abraao through occassional holes in the sky but not much else. Well what can you do. I was still glad to be up here and lingered on the summit for about an hour taking
plenty of pictures of myself in all sorts of positions. Then I headed back down, and returned to the main square in the village at around 10am and, sure enough, promptly ran into Catherine. In the afternoon we shilled
on the beach, enjoying delicious camarones from a nearby restaurant and a few victory beers.
More Mountain Stuff: Back to Overview.
This page was last updated: Thu Apr 20 2008
