Back in Itatiaia NP : 8000m at 2552m. Is that even possible?

A slight play on numbers that at first glance may seem innocent, but there are grounds , believe, and it is not funny att all . My return to Itatiaia National Park had long been delayed , due to chemotherapy, because of a winter cold front opportunistic , because of my agenda that could not match with my friend and fellow in the mountains, and in particular there, finally , several reasons that invariably , made the plans go wrong . This time everything went right , and not just for us , for more friends . Why should I let a cancer disrupt our way ?

Miss the park made my heart beat strong all the way, Lilianne is the main witness of this fact, hear me speak these words at least once or twice every week. As said above, would not let leukemia mess with it. The number two Paulo Cesar (rock climber) reserved the Rebouças Hut for a night with ten vacancies and invited me . From start he gave some spots to use so I tried to invite Tacio, Aline , another Paulo photographer (with whom I went to Morro das Torres recording the Brazilian Snow) , who tried to invite his friend Marcelo .

From the party of Paulo from Volta Redonda (the rock climber dude), all his friends gave up the idea since they look the weather forecast for Itatiaia in climatempo ( even after I spent some time explaining that I do not see the weather forecst to Itatiaia on this site since they use cities that are within 400m, 500m altitude and that's it, and the park road which is the highest in Brazil is at 2,400 m above sea level, are two vertical kms of difference here!) . Therefore, we use the specialized site Mountain Weather Forecasts, which with latitude and longitude coordinates, builds its forecasts upon Agulhas Negras to predict the time at the park . Literally 2,300 meters above where Paul 's friends looked the forecast. The result was quite obvious, all of them gave up.

Obviously the weather is not applicable, and based on this , thr group aborted their participation in the use of the hut with us. Therefore , our group stayed summarized to only six of the sixteen vacancies in the shelter . No other group would join us , which gave us hope of stretching the reservation for another night there, leaving the park Monday morning comfortably . 

Second shot of the trip, wow! (panorama composed by nin shots)

Ok, keep reading it

Tacio , Aline and I left Sao Paulo Friday the 8NOV2013 afternoon , no hurry , hoping  we arrived at night and sleep somewhere on the road that goes up park , since there are no more options to camp unless you have a reservations to camp besides the hut (10 tents space, thre persons each) ,or stayed in a hotel at the base of the park cities ( Resende , Queluz , Itatiaia or Itamonte ),or sleep in secret without drawing attention already above the line of the 2000 meters, coming early in the main entrance, that was more like us, done it dozens of times .

Let's be clear about something first, everyone because I know is aware of our reputation and concern for the preservation of the site. every time we go, we enter, left, and never leave anything but footprints . This is our way and we practiced by the book .

Well, after a few hours of road, a stop for dinner, soon sunset , we arrived at Garganta do Registro (1669m - Entrance of the dirt road to the park itself), it was night , and began to drive up. On the way up we saw several great places to casmp, but in plain sight, so we keept going up towards the place where we planned to camp . Did not work , part of the budget of R$ 350,000.00 invested in the park was recently applied to side road protections, preventing entry of vehicles at this point of the road . Patience , we left for option B. Entered the road leading to the Sierra Negra neighborhood, we descended about 800 meters down the road until we found a broad stretch, enough to fit the car parked and our tents , without preventing the passage of others . So we did , and we were right there , at 2.080 meters. Fair enough for us.

Then I noticed that my blood precarious state was more precarious than I imagined . Had in mind something around 7.0 of hemoglobin and hematocrit of 22 % , which would be 50 % of normal in a healthy man . This alone would be enough for most even leave the house. Just putting up my tent had two episodes of almost fainting just lowering myself to pick up the sticks and getting up again, even if slowly as prevention. I Was breathless and tachycardic , with at least 130 HR ( heart rate ) . Wow I thought, " is even too much , I'll see how it rolls tomorrow, but I think I cannot take 1km walk out of the hut..." . Truste me, it was very, very sad to me just to think about the possibility. Planned to illuminate the tent and make a night , I could not stand on my feet, I was beat up...Once I finished assembling the tent and without fixing specks , walked and slept deeply.

I woke up early , with the first projections of sunshine, before six in the morning. Shortly before a car passed us though that does not hurt my sleep . This time, with natural lighting got up , left the tent, and I was feeling a little better . Maybe overnight at two thousand meters has forced my marrow to produce something coming through the momentarily state of extreme hypoplasia she is , I do not know , but the feeling I had was that my red number had risen a little , felt " acclimated " .

Relieved the bladder, made three or four photos, walked a hundred yards down the road and noticed that we were super close to a river , walked back . Hence three bikes now comming up the road, were the park rangers of Itatiaia, luckily, I knew two of them and even without entering the gate of the high end for at least two and a half years, I think they remembered me. Waved and continued into the beginning of another day's work in paradise.

How ironic , we sought a recluse , hiding place , and stopped just at the site most frequented by park rangers, since most of them live in the Sierra Negra neighborhood, another paradise in mantiqueira Crusted more than 1,500 meters of altitude at the base of Serra Negra Peak, also known as "Black Stone" by locals, where we come walking in October 2010 . Enough now to disassemble everything and follow the plan to hit the park entrance as soon as possible.

So we followed , and during the ascent we passed by Marcelo's car. They were less discreet, stopped the car on a nerve in front of Alsene and bivy there hehehe , the most likely option is there to sleep. I think that day the guards were kinda "zen", because apparently turned a blind eye to the fact too. They wasn't ready then we went our way to the rangers statin, and heard the old joke about where we camp . Jokes were made of course, but everyone remembered the face of everyone and no one stressed in, a relaxed conversation quickly changed the subject to balance the inputs and overnight at the refuge. The second night, we got to stay there, what a beauty ah?

Arriving at the refuge we prepare to start walking toward our goal, Crystal Peak of Itatiaia of 2552 meters above sea level (altitude measured by Tácio in 2010 , when repeated this year , gave us 2543 meters, petty close ) , which is the left side of the trail that leads to the Aiuruoca waterfall, with a privileged view of the Pedra do Sino Itatiaia (2,670 meters ) , Unnamed Peak (which holeds Hermes Wing rock - 2,649 meters) and the Agulhas Negras (2,792 meters) and finally the great Sierra Negra Peak (2,572 meters).

While preparations was finalized soon after eating breakfast , the rest of the group arrived , so our group was complete and so we set all together in six , on the trail that goes to the Agulhas Negras and several other elevations of the oldest national park in Brazil .

Calmly , with amazing weather and mild temperatures, we enjoyed every step within the number one for the Brazilian mountaineering place number one ( I myseilf consider havens for Brazilian mountaineering three specific locations : Itatiaia National Park , Serra do Ibitiraquire and Caparaó National Park), mountain paradises where mountaineering, adventure, photography, wildlife walk side by side in harmony. The walker has just to practice the necessary respect.

Thought to be somewhat reduced the number of Flamenguinho frog we saw in the park , on other occasions I visited the park in the same month, saw an infinitely greater number , but as this year is atypical and the seasons are "comming late" about three weeks , the number will certainly increase considerably . Even so , we have seen many , and the erotic frenzy in puddles on the traditional cups Rocks park was rolling loose, then wait and check , the park will be in the best mood right.

Slowly, slowly we progress along the path , and arriving at the " trifurcation " where the hike sdivides in three ways , I felt more and more the burden of my poor blood. It seemed impossible to give ten steps without reach tachycardia, no matter hoe slow I was . Stretching for twenty paces , my heartbeat went from 150 andI got dizzy. Dangerous, so I needed constant stops and so the entire group was late for my fault . I can not lie, I felt so ashamed and thought of Parofes I used to be and what 's left of Parofes today, but how important is it? How concerned were the people who accompanied me in this regard? Bet you, anything at all. However , psychologically , for me this was devastating.

Still, life goes on , and the road is long. With great effort we reached altitude of 2,550 meters where the trail flattens and becomes extremely eroded , where you walk forward without gaining or losing even one meter . There I got back to being a mountaineer and won the ground a little more quicly. The trail is now marked with platelets , and this is good for the less experienced don't get lost. After a few minutes we saw the "Y" division, to right, the Altar Rock and left, continuing down the route of the crossing we were doing .

I thought fast and gave an interesting idea for half of our companions, to Paulo photographer, to Paulo climber and Marcelo, since no one of the were mountaineers, to hike the trail to Altar Rock summit, and to met us down there further on our trail since we were moving so slowly. None of them had stepped on top of the mountain that sustains an enviable altitude (2,665) mand reign on the list of highest mountains of Brazil (10th highest). They quickly agreed and climbed the stone while Tacio , Aline and I continued down to our goal .

From there we were relatively close, all we had to to was to go arounf the massif of Altar Peak and we would be face to face to our goal. We continued calmly , photographing , and enjoying the place pornographic bash flat flamenguinhos thrush, having sex in any wet place. When we finished the curve we saw the hill in front, and a providential sequence of rocky ramps in its slope. Shortly after our stop for a medium lunch, salami with natural lemon fruit from the fruit, which I took with me.

When I saw those natural sections of rock ramps, I thought about going up there, but we had to cross a small patch of tall grass and I could not risk cuts , bruises and a pool, nor think, since it is one of the places most frequented by snakes in the park. Thought, and aborted alone without verbalizing my idea.

Differently and while I thought Tacio thought equal, but he talked outloud. Commented that the same thought , but feared there was a puddle. Tacio was up to investigate and came to the conclusion that we could move without great difficulty . So off we went .

What happens, I think, is that we already climbed many mountains in the Park, open for visitors, prohibited , named, unnamed, to climb the easy way is not always more our option. So without even realizing it , just suggesting each other a way that can present some challenge, you know, think that's it. Although cross that bush possibly present in some obstacle, we would have less altitude difference to win from the normal longer trail, from the other side. Hell , straight ahead we go!

Finished, it took us no more than ten minutes in crossing the stretch that proved to be a hundred yards straight, and did not represent any challenge worthy of real shitholes where we already stick our boots before I have to say, all in the distant eastern edge of the park, vaccinated, we were pretty much okay. On the other side , and on the first ramp rock, a new  stop for my heart beat to lower down a bit.

Behind us down the trail crossing , the trio was already approaching when we still had began to climb the first slope of rocks. Shouted to them explaining the crossing and when we listened and started down the little valley we turn our backs and follow to the final mountain summit ridge.

There were less than 800 meters straight from our goal, and following the little ramps, rock ramps in about half an hour again we surpassed the line of the 2,500 meters (after getting down to 2,300m), in the main ridge of the mountain. Thence to the top for the couple was a walk in the park (Tacio and Aline), and for me a constant struggle between my body just wanted to lie down and sleep, and my mind that I had in front of an irrevocable goal, there very close, palpable after Steps...steps. stops... I got there eventually.