We had some experience with other first ascents, so after learning the local ethics- that routes must be ground up without power drills- we decided for the least probable variant of logical a route on this particular rock monument.
Well there would be more places, but climbing in a stone quarry or a botanical garden of cactuses is not the best choice, so the relatively firmest rock is in northeast or north face of the Sugar Loaf. Relatively firm, because even there you find loose stones, but the worse we had already broken down by ours skyhooks or hands and feet.
So it is a three pitches route. The first pitch is 6b+/30m technical plate. The first bolts Tomas put in a heat of 35 degrees Celcius. So after dropping down we realized we had to wait for shade or continue the next morning. In the evening I continued and added two more bolts, then Tomas went on and we had a belay station. We were under the overhang.
The second pitch is 8a+ /25m and their creating got the working name "psycho", about 70% of what we held came off and sitting in skyhooks was a bit of an adrenalin rush.
Its my turn to try to put in a bolt, but I do not want too run it out on loose rock. Then Tomas tried it and put the bolt a bit further. The master continues in cleaning. A slight traverse left down and several long moves on crimps, you would hardly believe with even a skyhook. He finds a position, carefuly sits, covers teeth, but the hold doesn´t hold. Many falls, and then he tries a loose hold and it keeps, so after ten minutes psycho the bolt is on. Another five metres are ahead. Continuing on. Two giant jumps follow and a good ledge, bolt and another one and one more and change. The same psycho with every bolt, I put two bolts and the belay station. The hand drill is after the first bolt dead so I go down and Tomas hammers down the second one. Uf, the hardest pitch on the Sugarloaf mountain is ready. We enjoyed the super adrenalin experience.
The third pitch goes along two bolts by Tomas and he shows nice style like on Czech trad sandstone. And he joints to the older routes, there for we continue by Italian route to the summit.
Well and ours feelings?
The route is nice, well bolted and in sport style. And is literally attracting the other adepts to try it to climb and do the first repetition after Tomas who climbed the route on 7th February 2007. (In his Czech articel on
Hudy site Tomas explaines he did it in an afternoon under the dark sky and during rain and on the several atempt RK). You will have to speed up because Brazilians may going to cancel the route. Allegedly the Pao de Azucar was declared by natural preservation and new first ascents are forbidden there specifically in the north face. In the south face they are allowed, but the cactuses would defend any attepmt to try to go through. Well we will see how they will decide, each time they say something different. In Brazil everything is possisble so the removable heads of the bolts will be able in climbing center Vertical Limit in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro.
Be aware that everything you do not take away from the route, could disappear in one day. Including slings you leave on the belay station.
After the fulfilling the old dream we were satisfied and we enjoyed more and more adventures in the city of gods, where man has sometimes feeling that it was bought by hell.
Simply when you think, that something has just finished, it has just started. But it is for a long story. Viva la Brasilia, greeting to all fellows.
Jirka Lautner
(photos by Jirka Lautner and Tomas Sobotka)
The other participants: Vodar, Parek, Monrou and Peta.
Beda:
Mesto bohu RP 8a+ (Cidade de Deus, City of Gods), Pao de Azucar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 26, 27 and 29 January 2007 - Tomáš Sobotka x Jirka Lautner, Czech Republic (Hudy Sport, Rock Empire, Direct Alpine a ČHS)
The inspiration for the route setting came from the movie City of Gods.
Translation from the original article in Czech on: www.Lezec.cz by Lezec team | | | Re: Little explanation about Urca's Rules | 00:15:08 20.03.2007 |
Forwarding other text about this title:
The Urca area, which comprises Pão de Açúcar and nearby Morro da Urca and Morro da Babilônia, is the most developed climbing area in the country, and really saturated in certain places. Besides, on the south faces of Sugar Loaf and Morro da Urca (which is NOT the face on which you opened your route), there are some very rare and endemic species of orchids and, specially, bromeliads, which actually might be seriously endangered if more routes were opened there.
Because of this, in 2002 the Rio de Janeiro Mountain Sports Federation (FEMERJ) called a meeting, opened to anyone interested on the matter, to discuss voluntary restrictions for the opening of new routes on these three mountains. First there were lectures by biologists focusing on the endangered species, and then an open debate, followed by decisions, based upon a broad consensus, about where new routes would be allowed or not, and the line you opened was exactly on one of theses restricted sectors (indeed, because of the above explained, not too many sectors were left for new routes…). The decisions of this meeting are in the federation’s website (www.femerj.org), but unfortunately only in Portuguese.
However, some people believe that the decisions of the 2002 meeting, although legitimate because they sprang from an open debate and consensus, were a bit though for some sectors, including that of Cidade de Deus, and a revision will take place this year - no date yet. So, if in this revision the status of that particular sector is to be changed, there is already a compromise of the current directorship of the FEMERJ to replace all of your bolts and give you full credit for a beautiful and outstanding route.
The only obstacle I can see in this case does not come from climbers, but from certain scientists, because that face was one of the three only known habitats of a very beautiful and rare orchid, “Laelia lobata”, practically extinct in nature, that researchers from the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro plan to reintroduce there… No more information on this available by now, and we have some concern about the OLD routes on that face (one of them, “Pássaros de Fogo” (Birds of Fire, 5.11a, opened in 1983), of my own…).
I hope to have clarified a little bit this matter for you, explaining that there were NO bad feelings at all about your route: on the contrary, many people hope that this problem can be settled satisfactorily and the line restored to its original state.
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A pair of Czech climbers Tomas Sobotka and Jiri Lautner set out to make the first ascent on Pao de Azúcar (Pão de Açúcar - Sugar Loaf) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the end of the January 2007.
