On the edge of the precipice
Negrete and Raineri's adventure, from Unicamp's sport climbing wall to the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in Latin America

JOÃO MAURÍCIO DA ROSA

Two o'clock in the morning of New Year's Eve.
Climbers Vitor Negrete and Rodrigo Raineri are camped in a
ice platform at 6.700 meters above sea level, on the south face of Aconcagua, its steepest path and never conquered by Brazilian challengers – very different from the traditional climb, almost similar to a walk. There are approximately 250 meters left to complete the victorious climb of the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayan mountain range.

But, that morning, the heavy snowfall that has been punishing them since three in the afternoon persists and the two men are being pushed off the plateau that they had dug with great difficulty, until they are hanging from ropes by their belts, soaked, on the edge of a precipice. . In this position they will have to remain until 7 am, waiting for the day to clear to resume the ascent. These were the worst moments that the climbers would have to overcome, on a seven-day journey that ended on January 2nd.

While they were hanging, Vitor and Rodrigo couldn't help but remember the three countrymen defeated by the mountain in one of Aconcagua's greatest tragedies. In February 1998, Mozart Catão, aged 35, one of the two Brazilians to conquer the 8.848 meters of Everest (the other was Waldemar Nicleviczs), Alexandre Oliveira, aged 24, and Othon Leonardo, aged 23, found themselves at 700 meters from the peak when they were surprised by an avalanche.

Mozart fell into an abyss. His two colleagues froze to death, tied to the ropes, just below the point where Vitor and Rodrigo were suspended during the night. Passing by the corpses of his colleagues is reported cautiously by Vitor. “We avoid commenting on how the bodies are, out of respect for them and their families. We don't want fantasies to be created, because no matter how much we say one thing, people can understand another. So it’s better not to say too much”, he explains.

At 6.200 meters from a practically vertical wall, and constantly subject to avalanches, the bodies can hardly be rescued. “As I believe in souls, I think theirs are somewhere else. There were only bodies left there”, says Rodrigo, who intends to speak to the victims' families, if they look for him.

Sponsorship – The tragedy, if it did not reduce the spirit of the new challengers of the mountain, inhibited the sponsors. The three dead climbers were paid for by a large fuel distributor, which ended up excluding this sport from its share of advertising investments. Vitor and Rodrigo, who until now have not sought sponsorship, have been paying for their adventures out of their own pockets, but are still confident in obtaining support to climb Everest. “Mountaineering is no more dangerous than other sports, if practiced with all safety criteria. In 98 a fatality occurred. They had 14 days of storms, they didn’t have access to the weather forecast”, says Rodrigo.

The arrival at the Aconcagua peak was accompanied by a TV Globo team and forest guards, testimonials of the feat. As soon as the day cleared after the early morning snowfall, the pair recovered the platform and began preparing for the last leg of the journey. Such endeavors begin with the satisfaction of physiological needs, in a hole dug in the ice during warmer hours of the day (around minus 5 to 12 degrees).

Storms – Training to win Aconcagua began almost two years earlier. After a year of physical and technical training, in February 2001, they carried out a reconnaissance climb that ended two-thirds of the way up the South Face, opened in 1974. “We were carrying a lot of weight. There was a possibility of success even in that training, but in case of failure it would be fatal. So we decided to go back”, recalls Rodrigo. For the final and victorious journey, they left Campinas on December 12, 2001, heading to Mendonça, in Argentina. From there they headed to Puente del Inca, the gateway to the Aconcagua Provincial Park. The base camp of the southern wall is called Plaza Francia, or French Square, where they remained until December 27th.

The goal was to reach the summit in five days, that is, to celebrate the victory on the last day of the year. “But we had to face many storms and walk with our legs up to our thighs. If the snow had been harder, it would have been much faster.”

But it's not just the density of snow, loose rocks, blizzards and avalanches that make climbing a mountain of that size difficult. Climbers still face discharges caused by static electricity, an effect of wind rubbing against clothes, and cracks. The latter are the most dangerous, as they consist of true hidden abysses, almost at the surface of the glacier and which can rupture and swallow the climber. The obstacles were overcome at 20:15 pm on January 2nd, recalls Vitor: “The celebration was quick. The weather was starting to change and we had to limit ourselves to a hug and some shouting.”

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It all started on a wall at Unicamp

On January 10, the Brazilian climbers who won Aconcagua were received as heroes by the City of Campinas and the Rectory of Unicamp, the university where Rodrigo graduated in food engineering and today works as a researcher, and where Vitor graduated in food engineering. computing and is a candidate for a master's degree in the area of ​​quality.

Present at the ceremony, senator Eduardo Suplicy – ​​who was on campus invited to pay another tribute, to Mayor Antônio da Costa Santos, murdered last September – wanted to know if Unicamp had also taught mountaineering to the two champions. The senator just wanted to be witty, but was surprised by the answer: “Yes”. Vitor and Rodrigo, although they did not learn the sport at the University, were mainly responsible for its introduction on campus. On their initiative, the Faculty of Physical Education (FEF) today has its eight meter high wall for the practice of sports climbing, an activity that has been proliferating among lovers of extreme sports since the second half of the 90s.

The trajectory of Vitor Negrete and Rodrigo Raineri began in 1988, with a series of adventure trips that gave rise to the Gaia Group. Vítor, accompanied by two other colleagues, traveled 2.400 kilometers of the Transamazônica Highway pedaling a bicycle, between December 1992 and February 1993.
When construction of the FEF building began, they collected names for a petition asking for the installation of the wall. “We soon founded GEEU (Unicamp Sports Climbing Group), which is still active today”, says Vitor. Sport climbing can awaken people to mountaineering, but it is far from preparing them for such an adventure. “The wall is cool, but this activity is restricted, controlled. Stones don’t roll, bees don’t appear, it doesn’t rain, lightning doesn’t fall”, compares the climber.

To climb mountains, explains Vitor, you need first aid training, knowledge of techniques for climbing ice and rocks, and carrying out rescues, in addition to a series of other courses and experiences. “Just climbing a wall and then trying to climb a mountain can be fatal. It's common to see people who get into trouble because they think they can climb anywhere. It’s not that way,” he warns.