Leo Houlding and Team Climb New Route on Roraima

A strong international team led by Leo Houlding and including Wilson Cutbirth, Dan Howard, Waldo Etherington, Anna Taylor and Matt Pycroft have climbed a new route up Mount Roraima in Guyana.

Mount Roraima sits on the borders of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana. Houlding and his team left at the start of November and made their way through thick bush to the base of the flat-topped mountain. They eventually rigged an advanced camp high above the treetops and worked on the upper prow over the next few weeks. They started up the original line first climbed in 1973 by British climbers Mo Antoine, Joe Brown, Hamish MacInnes and Don Whillans.

After reaching the Tarantula Terrace, they continued up steep rock that was generally very solid. They reached the summit on Dec. 3 with Houlding saying the route was climbed completely free and almost entirely onsight. He said, it is a “bold, proud line that fires right up the middle of the prow.”

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The last few days have been a whirlwind. Lots of stories to come, but on 3rd December we stood on the summit of Mount Roraima having established a bold, proud line that fires right up the middle of the prow, starting up the 1974 British route and weaving through a series of immense roofs. Couple of hard pitches near the top that needed work, and a good lead on a technical pitch near our second wall camp from @anna_taylor_98 . The whole thing went completely free, almost entirely onsight. What a mission. ? @mattpycroft

A post shared by Leo Houlding (@leo_houlding) on Dec 6, 2019 at 12:51pm PST