5.12 on Acopan Tepui in Venezuela

A German-Venezuelan team established a 20-pitch free route up the North Pillar of Acopan Tepui in Venezuela in December. After an approach by folding canoes and a trail hacked through the rainforest above the Gran Sabana, Kurt Albert, Ivan Calderón, Stefan Glowacz, and Holger Heuber (along with a photographer, cameraman, and doctor) climbed 20 pitches up the 2,300-foot buttress. About two-thirds of the route was overhanging, and the lower section of the wall was extremely loose (“You could scratch out a hole with your finger!” Glowacz said), but the final headwall offered “dream climbing.” The team placed bolt anchors and used a mix of bolts and removable gear to protect the free climbing. The new route, Purgatory, was continuously difficult, with many pitches of 5.11 and 5.12. 

In early January, shortly after the Germans paddled off toward an airstrip to be picked up, Americans Kyle Dempster and Mike Libecki arrived at Acopan Tepui, hoping to make the first ascent of the North Pillar. (Libecki had attempted the wall four years earlier, climbing about 700 feet.) After climbing the initial jungle pitches, they were disappointed to discover that someone had just been there and had removed the fixed ropes and portaledge that Libecki had left on the wall. After replacing some gear at the village below (including locating Libecki’s ledge), the two fixed four pitches up Libecki’s old line, and then climbed to the top in five days. They completed the Dempster-Libecki Variation in 13 long pitches (V 5.11 A2), following the most natural line, while the German route veered onto steeper rock and back, apparently in search of more spectacular free climbing. 

Dempster and Libecki were disappointed to find the pillar already climbed and puzzled by the Germans’ style, including the short pitches and plentiful bolts. But they were pleased to reach the summit of the flat-topped mountain and enjoyed numerous encounters with strange jungle fauna, including a black scorpion that threatened Dempster’s bare leg; jumbo multicolored tarantulas; and three ticks attached to Libecki’s scrotum. 

Three other routes have been climbed on Acopan Tepui: the 10-pitch Jardinieros de Grandes Paretes (5.11) on the South Face,  the 20-pitch Unate Arête (5.12 A1), and the 21-pitch Pizza, Chocolate y Cerveza (5.12+) on the Southeast Face. The two long free routes, both established by British-Venezuelan teams, were climbed with no bolts or pitons. 

Dates of Ascents: December 2006 and January 2007 

Sources: Mayr Nell Public Relations, www.glowacz.de, Kyle Dempster, Mike Libecki, 2004 American Alpine Journal

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