Opinion – É Logo Ali: 31-year-old Paulista opens the way to the highest cave mouth in the world

When Felipe Camargo finished high school, he decided he wasn’t going to go to college. A climber since he was 10 years old, he decided to make his livelihood from the rocky walls. On July 23, at the age of 31, this São Paulo native from Ribeirão Preto achieved his first great feat on national soil: being the first athlete to climb and open an access road to the largest cave mouth in the world, according to Guinness portico of the Casa de Pedra cave, in Petar (Alto Ribeira Tourist State Park) in Iporanga (SP), a natural heritage of humanity recognized by UNESCO.

In all, it took three years of planning, more than 20 hours of climbing, 400 meters of ropes used and 500 hand movements to complete the eight ropes (each rope represents the distance between two key points of the climbing route) that lead to the summit. In addition, a lot of study, careful analysis of the rocks and physical and mental preparation to open 280 meters of track and reach the approximately 215 meters that separate the base of the trail from the top of the cave’s portico. In the endeavor, for which he got sponsorship from Red Bull, and which became a documentary, “Gigante de Pedra – By Felipe Camargo”, which premieres this Wednesday (19) on Red Bull TV, had the support of fellow climbers Ruddy Proença, Alexandre Fei, Ralf Cortês, Alex Mendes and Pedro Leite.

In addition, in addition to the path of greater technical difficulty, Camargo left open an alternative, easier path, which he called “Maluco Beleza”, the name of the song by Raul Seixas that his father, a great supporter of his passion for the sport, was passionate about. .

While recovering from an elbow injury and waiting for the documentary to premiere, Camargo spoke to the blog about his experience.

1. What is it like to be the first to achieve such a feat at such a young age? It’s really cool, it was a dream of mine and it was a very different feeling, because I didn’t know if it would be possible, what I would have to face, to face. I always liked to climb in caves, very steep walls, and in 2016 I went to China to climb one of the biggest caves in the world, we made a documentary sponsored by North Face, and when I returned to Brazil, many told me about Casa de Pedra, in Petar. I went to check it out and we started negotiating with the Forestry Foundation, because until then it was forbidden to climb the caves in the park.

2. What was most difficult? In fact, everything from opening the route to the climb itself, which is quite difficult. It took us 20 hours from base to top, we slept hanging from the rock. Just to clear the road and prepare the access, we walked 10 kilometers a day every day, 5 kilometers to go and as many to come back. It took us a month to clean the road, which gave about 130 kilometers covered in this process alone.

3. What was the biggest perrengue of the process? For sure it was the dirt on the wall, which was much worse than we expected, the wall is so sloping that the rain doesn’t wet it, so there was millenary dust that needed to be swept up along the 280 meters of climb to allow the passage.

4. And what are your plans for the future? First, I need to recover from the elbow injury and then plan the next steps for 2023, looking to elevate what I’ve already done.

5. Is there ice on this horizon? No, my thing is rock climbing, really.

A new attraction for Petar

The new climbing route, according to Petar’s manager, Juliana Conrado, should only be released to the public next year, as it is something totally new in the management of the unit. Today, the public can only reach the entrance to the cave, but not the top of the rock.

“The possibility of receiving climbs increases the attractions of the park, which in recent years, before the pandemic, received an average of 40,000 visitors a year”, explains Juliana. “That’s because we always work with cave management, but we don’t have much information on how to do this management for climbing, and we created a working group together with specialists from the Forestry Foundation to study this novelty in detail”, she continues.

Currently, Petar, which had the concession process suspended in March this year, has only 12 of the more than 350 caves spread across its 35,000 hectares of Atlantic Forest open to public visitation. The park, located between the cities of Apiaí and Iporanga in São Paulo, was created in 1958 by the state government. Its access is controlled and it is mandatory to hire accredited monitors for the visits. As the longest trail in the park is only 3.5 kilometers, overnight stays in the area are not yet allowed. “But we are in the process of opening the Transpetar trail, connecting two centers in 24 kilometers, and overnight stays will be authorized there, so we are studying the norms and rules for its use”, says the manager.