Pico da Neblina, Mountain summit in Amazonas, Brazil
Pico da Neblina is Brazil's highest summit, at 2,995.30 m, in the Serra do Imeri near the Venezuelan border. Its upper part is a steep, dark grey and brown rock peak with narrow ridges and escarpments above 2,000 m. Lower slopes are covered by rainforest that gives way to montane forest, low shrubs and exposed rock.
Naturalists had sighted the mountains from the Rio Negro by the nineteenth century, but expeditions only began entering the upper massif in the 1950s. Brazilian topographer José Ambrósio de Miranda Pombo made the first known ascent of Pico da Neblina in 1965 while working on the Brazil–Venezuela boundary. Climbing tourism grew late in the twentieth century, then stopped in 2003 after disputes over entry into Yanomami territory and damage inside the national park. Visits resumed in 2022 under the Yanomami-run Yaripo ecotourism program.
Yanomami communities of the Cauaburis region call the mountain Yaripo, usually translated as "Mountain of the Winds"; the name also covers the ridge shared with Pico 31 de Março, called Kurarana. Yaripo is sacred in Yanomami belief, and sites along the route to the summit figure in ancestral stories and rituals concerning spirits and the natural world. In Yanomami speech, Pico da Neblina is a napëpë name brought by non-Yanomami outsiders. Since 2022 the Yanomami-run Yaripo ecotourism project has managed visits.
Access to the summit requires authorization from Brazilian authorities and coordination with local Yanomami communities. Visitors should plan several days for the journey, as flights to São Gabriel da Cachoeira and subsequent boat trips are necessary.
The slopes of the summit harbor carnivorous plant species like Heliamphora neblinae that have adapted to the high altitude. These species are found only on this mountain and live among the rock formations and moss areas of the upper zones.
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