In this edition, in honor of festive food, we are going to talk about mountains and climbing — and suggest that the reader leave them aside for a while, at least on this side of the Equator. With the predictable storms, typical of summer, the traditional mountaineering season is more than over and the last thing we want is an increase in accident statistics in the beautiful forests of our landscapes.
A few days ago, mountaineering groups discussed the case of two young people who spent two nights lost and without even minimally adequate equipment in the Ibitiraquire mountain range of Paraná, in Serra do Mar, while they were trying to find a way to climb to the top of one of the most demanding mountains in the chain, the Ferraria peak. At approximately 1,745 meters above sea level, the climb is classified as very difficult, as it requires long hours of technical walking through steep and slippery sections.
According to the reports, they themselves had made a point of recording their ignorance, by leaving a note in the Taipabuçu summit notebook: “We don’t know how to get to Ferraria, but we’ll find a way”, said the simple text, for posterity. So, almost an epitaph.
Luckily for the kids, the guardian angel was working overtime that day and they ended up being rescued, after two days lost in the region, by the Tactical Relief Operations Group of the Paraná Military Fire Department. A shameful but happy ending for those who could have been accountable to Saint Peter, who had opened the floodgates of heaven to a strong storm like the ones that have been in the news in recent weeks and which, unfortunately, will continue to be so in the coming weeks.
What remains of this and many other similar cases is a basic and very simple, but ironclad rule: there is no way around the mountains. She doesn’t care about your good intentions of learning by making mistakes. Error, in nature, is often paid for with life.
The elements have already taken down people who are much more experienced than the bold fool will ever become — if they don’t come to their senses. Hypothermia is a real risk that is not limited to the snowy altitudes of the planet’s great summits. In fact, it is in the summer when more cases are recorded in Brazil, trampling adventurers drenched in storms that leave them exposed to the winds that steal all the heat from their bodies and damp clothes in a matter of minutes. And let’s not even talk about lightning, which leaves the country in seventh place in the ranking of deaths from electrical discharges, with 78 million events annually — the highest incidence recorded worldwide.
Serra do Mar is a wall that runs, as the name suggests, along approximately 1,500 kilometers of the coast of Santa Catarina to the north of Rio de Janeiro. In it, summer brings a treacherous component of more humidity combined with the strong heat of the season. The combination generates practically every day the dreaded cumulus nimbus, frightening rain clouds that blacken the sky in minutes, dumping barrels of water that put the slopes that are increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather at risk.
These sudden rains, which do not always fall at the same time everywhere, bring another risk that is very common at this time of year: water heads, flash floods that form in the highest regions even while down on the trail or in the seemingly peaceful little waterfall, everything still seems sunny, and carry the unsuspecting hiker away before he even understands what has happened. Every summer cases like these are recorded. Many end up on social media. Others, you can already imagine and I’m not the one who wants to ruin the spirit of happy holidays by giving bad news.
Without wanting to sound terrorist or discourage anyone who just received that beautiful backpack from Santa Claus, I’m just going to leave a suggestion for anyone who thinks they can unleash their mountaineering spirit when the heat seems to advise them to look for the coolness of the slopes: wait a few more months, the mountain will still be there.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
