Roraima 2013/Article for AAJ/
Roraima
Guyana - Venezuela - Guyana
02/16 - 03/19/2013
The idea of our expedition belongs to my friend Alexander Klenov who had some experience in Venezuela (free ascent on the Angel Falls with British team in 2005). Our goal was to climb a new route on the Prow of Roraima. Alexander invited me to join him and yet another climber, Andrew Krylov.
We met in Georgetown, Guyana on Feb 16th. Soon we realized that trekking to Roraima is not a trivial task. There was a plenty of companies and guides offering such a service but without warranty of any kind. None of them was trustworthy and, running out of options, we decided to fly over to a a Phillipai village where Mark Synnott hired his guides back in 2003. Fortunately, I had a picture of Mark and three their guides. We managed to find out of the guides and he agreed to help, but soon after we found that he doesn't have the authority to make these decisions. All important decisions are made by their chieftain, Cap Oswald Joshao.
The Cap wasn't happy about our arrival without official permission from Ministry of Amerindian Affairs but we managed to "resolve" this issue. At first, he quoted a reasonable price for trekking, we had enough money for 1-way trekking under the Prow. We planned to return via Venezuela. Then the chieftain made "detailed estimate" and the price turned to be exorbitantly high. The price of 5-day trekking was about the same as a Himalaya expedition.
We found ourselves in a very bad position. We wasted both time and money but the Phillipai village turned to be a dead end. We had no options but to go back to Georgetown. So, we called the same pilot in Georgetown and he flown us back.
From there, we had only two options: a) go back to Russia empty-handed or b) try to climb Roraima from Venezuela side, without official permit. We opted for the latter.
Since we're short of cash, we decided to take a bus to Venezuela. The jorney to Santa Elena de Uaren took us 2.5 days. There we got lucky to find a good local guide who could bring us and our gear to the wall of Roraima. There was a problem, though: we couldn't stay in a national park for more than 8 days, so our time was very limited.
It's March 5, we start climbing. We didn't have a chance to study the wall and our route in detail. The top part of the wall was in the clouds and we couldn't wait for the weather/visibility to improve due to time limitations.
What we could see was like a bas-relief of roofs shaped like the African continent on geographic map. No wonder we called it "Africa".
We managed to climb 3 pitches on that day. In the beginning of 2nd pitch we found old bolts and followed them to the "South end" of the "Africa". The bolts ended there; we didn't notice bolts or any other abandoned gear from that point on.
The three of us spent the night on a double portaledge, it was okay.
Our ascent was mixed free climbing /6C-7A/ and AID /A1, A2/. Many of the cracks were filled with soil and grass. We climbed about a half of the wall (400 m, 9 pitches) in 5 days. On March 10 we faced with monolit rocks without any cracks. To our great sorrow we realized that we don't have enough time and have to turn back. Alexander fetched the gear from top pitches and I went down the rope. I used the clip back technique to hang on the roofs.
Next day we were rapelling and then hiking up traditional tourist's trail to the Roraima's plateu. Upon return to our BC we got bad news: our team was noticed on the wall and we had to report to the Director of the National Park. According to the guide, our gear could be impounded and we could be subject to fine. We negotiated the matters with the last money we had on hand.
We were given a ride to St. Elena and arrived there on the day of mourning ceremony for Hugo Chavez.
Of course, this expedition was quite shambolic but like everything in our life, it's just an experience. Hope that someone will find it useful.