Pico da Pedra da Mina: the hidden summit and Rob's 1,000th Ribu

Pico da Pedra da Mina is one of the more substantial summits in southeastern Brazil. IBGE places it fifth among the country's highest mountains, while the article data gives it 2,068 metres of prominence: comfortably an Ultra. None of that, however, was the first problem of the day. As usual on this trip, I was thinking about the road.

Registration before sunrise

A few sections on the final approach were steep and slippery, but our car made it. Dave helped again where it mattered. We parked while it was still dark and went through the registration procedure at the entrance station.

Advance registration was required, and arranging it was unnecessarily difficult. The form itself was complicated enough; payment was worse, because the system expected a Brazilian ID, which none of us had. After some back-and-forth with the park staff, we eventually agreed that we could pay in cash at the entrance. It was not straightforward, but it worked.

We were also issued reflective foil emergency bivouac bags, the lightweight metallic survival sacks used for an unplanned night out. The other requirement was less glamorous: everyone was supposed to carry a “shit tube” for packing out human waste. We did not have them, so the staff made an exception and gave us a simpler system using plastic waste bags instead. We were told to return the issued equipment, used or unused. With the bureaucracy finally finished, we could start walking.

A summit that refused to identify itself

The first two or three kilometres were relatively flat, running roughly parallel to the Rio Verde rather than climbing directly towards the high ridge. After that the ascent became steeper.

This turned into one of those hikes where we kept trying to decide which visible top was the actual summit. There was no shortage of convincing candidates. One rounded rise looked right, then another ridge behind it looked better, and then the route revealed something farther away again. As usual when a mountain plays this game, none of the early guesses was correct. The real summit was farther away and remained hidden until we had climbed much higher.

The long ridge walk

One rise after another: enough plausible summits to keep the guessing game alive.

The trail itself was very good and repeatedly opened onto broad views. As the sun rose it became warmer, but never uncomfortably hot. We overtook a few parties who had started earlier and kept gaining height: one slope, another slope, then one more. Eventually the shape of the route became clearer and the true summit finally entered the picture.

There was still a small descent before the final summit block, a useful reminder that mountain routes are perfectly capable of demanding extra climbing when the destination already looks close.

Wind, people and Rob’s 1,000th Ribu

The summit was windy, and I was surprised by how many people were already there. Our approach had felt reasonably quiet, but another trail was feeding hikers onto the top. Apparently the crowd was not entirely human either.

Apparently the summit guest list was not limited to Earth. Someone had brought a green alien all the way up Pedra da Mina.

For Rob, the summit had an extra significance: Pico da Pedra da Mina was his 1,000th Ribu. I congratulated him there. Reaching four figures on that list is a remarkable achievement in itself. I suspected he might even be the first recorded climber to reach the number, although I could not verify that, so the milestone was impressive enough without turning it into a record claim.

I do not take many selfies, but this was one I wanted. Standing there with someone who had just climbed his 1,000th Ribu felt like a perfectly good reason to make an exception.

Rob on the left and me taking one of my rare selfies. I do not take many, but I was proud to make an exception for a photo with a man celebrating his 1,000th Ribu.

After a short celebration, we started down.

We dropped back to the saddle, where I took a small shortcut through high grass on an old trail. That saved a little wandering but did not remove the next small ascent. From there we followed the ridge back towards the river valley and gradually lost the height we had spent the morning gaining.

Colour on the way back

Lower on the mountain, the large ridge views gave way to smaller details beside the trail. Several flowering plants stood out against the grass, rock and forest. I am leaving the species unidentified rather than attaching confident Latin names to photographs that do not support them clearly enough.

Back at the entrance station we returned the issued items and signed out. Then came the steep road again, this time in daylight, before the drive back to Cruzeiro.

The day had begun with paperwork and uncertainty about whether the car would reach the start. It ended with a clear summit, a long ridge walk and Rob’s 1,000th Ribu. A very good day.