Peak Description
Mount Roraima is one the most mysterious and alluring mountains in the world. An enormous flat-topped mesa, its sheer cliffs rise from one of the most remote areas of the Amazon rain forest. It is entirely appropriate that Conan Doyle used Roraima as the inspiration for the novel Lost World, a tale of modern dinosaurs.
The mountain is a vast heart-shaped plateau, with the area of the rolling summit area about 50 sq.km or 20 sq. miles. It lies in three countries, but Venezuela controls over 80% of the summit, with Brazil and Guyana owning much smaller slivers. The highest point on the massif, a rock called the "Maverick Stone", is in Venzuela, near the southwestern side of the plateau. Several kilometers northeast from this is the Triple-Country Point, a survery monument where the three nations meet.
Roraima was long thought to be the highest peak in the Guiana Highlands, but new surveys show that it only ranks third, behind Brazil's Pico da Neblina and Cerro Marahuaca. Somewhere on the plateau is the highest point in the nation of Guyana, but I have been unable to determine the exact coordinates of this point. I don't think it is the same as the Triple-Country Point, which appears to be the highest point of the Brazilian slice of Roraima.
Climbing Notes
In these days of popular adventure tourism, the ascent has become a relatively easy trek of about three to five days. There is a ramp on the southwest side of the mountain's mostly sheer cliffs that allows a non-technical route to the summit plateau, very close to the Maverick Stone. The start point for these trips is Santa Elena, Venezuela, and several tour companies arrange them, using native guides and porters. |
