Mount Roraima is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepui plateau in South America.:156
First described by the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596, its 31 km2 summit
area:156 consists on all sides of cliffs rising 400 metres.
The mountain also serves as the triple border point of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.:156
Mount Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000-square-kilometre
Canaima National Park forming the highest peak of Guyana's Highland Range.
The tabletop mountains of the park are considered some of the oldest geological formations on
Earth, dating back to some two billion years ago in the Precambrian.
The highest point in Guyana and the highest point of the Brazilian state of Roraima lie
on the plateau, but Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains elsewhere.
The triple border point is at 5°12′08″N 60°44′07″W, but the mountain's highest
point is Maverick Rock, 2,810 metres, at the south end of the plateau and wholly within
Venezuela.
Flora and fauna
Many of the species found on Roraima are unique to the plateau.
Plants such as pitcher plants, Campanula, and the rare Rapatea heather are commonly
found on the escarpment and summit.:156–157 It rains almost every day of the year.
Almost the entire surface of the summit is bare sandstone, with only a few bushes and
algae present.:517:464:63 Low scanty and bristling vegetation is also found in the small, sandy
marshes that intersperse the rocky summit.:517 Most of the nutrients that are present in
the soil are washed away by torrents that cascade over the edge, forming some of the
highest waterfalls in the world.
There are many examples of unique fauna atop Mount Roraima.
Oreophrynella quelchii, commonly called the Roraima Bush Toad, is a diurnal toad usually
found on open rock surfaces and shrubland.
It is a species of toad in the Bufonidae family and breeds by direct development.
The species is currently listed as vulnerable and there is a need for increased education
among tourists to make them aware of the importance of not handling these animals in the wild.
Close population monitoring is also required, particularly since this species is known only
from a single location.
The species is protected in Monumento Natural Los Tepuyes in Venezuela, and Parque Nacional
Monte Roraima in Brazil.
Culture Since long before the arrival of European
explorers, the mountain has held a special significance for the indigenous people of
the region, and it is central to many of their myths and legends.
The Pemon and Kapon natives of the Gran Sabana see Mount Roraima as the stump of a mighty
tree that once held all the fruits and tuberous vegetables in the world.
Felled by Makunaima, their mythical trickster, the tree crashed to the ground, unleashing
a terrible flood.
Roroi in the Pemon language means blue-green and ma means great.
In 2006, Mount Roraima was the destination for the award-winning Gryphon Productions
two-hour television documentary The Real Lost World.
The program was shown on Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater and OLN.
Directed by Peter von Puttkamer, this travel/adventure documentary featured a modern team of explorers—Rick
West, Dr. Hazel Barton, Seth Heald, Dean Harrison and Peter Sprouse—who followed in the footsteps
of British explorers Im Thurn and Harry Perkins who sought the flora and fauna of Roraima
in the mid-19th century.
The adventures of those explorers may have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's seminal book
about people and dinosaurs, The Lost World, published in 1912.:156 In 2006, The Real Lost
World team were the first scientific team to explore the caves of Roraima, only recently
discovered.
Inside they found intriguing "carrot" formations growing in the 2 billion year old caves.
Dr. Hazel Barton returned in 2007 on a NASA funded expedition to investigate the features
growing on the cave walls and ceiling: evidence of extremophile cave microbes eating the silica-based
walls of the cave and leaving dusty deposits on ancient spiderwebs, forming these unique
stalactite type shapes.
In 2009, Mount Roraima served as inspiration for a location in the Disney/Pixar animated
movie Up.
The Blu-ray version of the movie disc bonus footage features a short film about some of
the Pixar production team going to Mount Roraima and climbing it for inspiration and ideas
for the making of Up.
Ascents
Although the steep sides of the plateau make it difficult to access, it was the first recorded
major tepui to be climbed: Sir Everard im Thurn walked up a forested ramp in December
1884 to scale the plateau.
This is the same route hikers take today.
Today, Mount Roraima is a destination for backpackers.
Almost all who go up the mountain approach it from the Venezuelan side.
Most hikers hire a Pemon Indian guide in the village of Paraitepui, which is reached by
dirt road from the main Gran Sabana road between kilometre 88 and Santa Elena de Uairen.
Although the path to reach the plateau is well marked and popularly traveled, it is
easy to get lost on top of the mountain, as there are few distinct trails and the near
constant cloud cover on top and the uncanny rock formations make visual references problematic.
Paraitepui can be reached easily by four-wheel-drive vehicle, with great difficulty by car if the
unpaved road conditions are unusually fine, or by foot in about a day.
From Paraitepui, most hikers take two days to reach the base of the mountain, and then
another day to follow "La Rampa," a natural staircase-like path, up to the top.
Another two days are typically needed for the return, and many people spend one day
and night on top of the mountain, making six days in total.
Longer treks can reach the northern portion of the tepui, mostly in Guyana, with less
explored and more intriguing sites such as Lake Gladys, although this offers more dangers
than its more popular southern part and should only be attempted by well-supplied groups.
The less adventurous can also reach the mountain, weather permitting, by helicopter tours available
from the nearby Venezuelan city of Santa Elena de Uairén.
The only non-technical route to the top is the Paraitepui route; any other approach will
involve climbing gear.
Mount Roraima has been climbed on a few occasions from the Guyana and Brazil sides, but as the
mountain is entirely bordered on both these sides by enormous sheer cliffs that include
high overhanging stretches, these are extremely difficult and technical rock climbing routes.
2013 Austrian documentary "Jäger des Augenblicks - Ein Abenteuer am Mount Roraima" documented
rocker climbers Kurt Albert, Holger Heuber, and Stefan Glowacz climbing to the top of
Mount Roraima from the Guyana side.
Such climbs would also require difficult authorizations for entering restricted-access national parks
in the respective countries.
As of 2009, climbing from the Brazilian side would be particularly problematic, due to
the access being through Raposa-Serra do Sol Amerindian reserve, where armed conflicts
between the natives, rice farmers and the authorities have been frequent.
References
Further reading
External links Mount Roraima on SummitPost.org
National Geographic's 2004 Biological Exploration of the Cliffs
History of exploration on Mount Roraima A walk around the top of Mount Roraima
Inspiration for Paradise Falls