How to get there:
The town of Cruzeiro is a reasonable point of reference.
Travel west, then north up the valley to reach refugio Marins at location
S22.50811, W45.14936, elevation near 1570 meter. The upper part of this road
was both rough and very slippery after rain. Barely possible for a 2WD with
medium clearance. A 4WD vehicle would be preferable.
Route description:
A good trail heads out from the end of the refugio Marins. It initially
runs through forest, then climbs to a small local hilltop with good
views. A very small descent follows, connecting to the south-west ridge.
The trail is pretty well marked with painted arrows and a few cairns. Still,
one may loose it, a good advice is to immediately backtrack and resume progress
on the trail/route as you get back on it. The terrain is complex and may turn
difficult if off-route.
The route is mostly straightforward, but there are a couple of places where hands are
needed. Friction on slabs may be less safe if wet.
Here is a quick summary of peaks climbed on this trip to Brazil.
A track is posted on Peakbagger. Comments:
I drove from Cruzeiro with Lihua and Michael. The car (only 2wd) needed a couple of tries to get
up a muddy and slippery hill fairly close to the end of the road.
We started around 0900. A good and easy trail quickly brought us fairly high and gradually into
terrain where easy scrambling was needed. The route was both scenic and fun. The first "crux point"
was a crack, but on closer inspection it has several good holds for feet and hands. Next, after
turning the first mountain, you cross a more horizontal section in order to get to the base
of the final slopes. Here, there is considerable slabs that may look hard, but with a reasonable
angle the friction is good at least when dry. Higher up, there is a single, short slab that
is steepish to begin with. A pretty obvious crack gave me access, one may possibly also just do
the first 2 meter on friction.
We were up in 3:15.
Good views to the other local peaks as well as back down to the lower areas.
It was a bit windy on top, thus descending back down after only 10 minutes.
The return hike took about 3 hours. Many thanks are due to Lihua and Michael
for good company.
