Mount Roraima

PeaksBolívar,Venezuela

A tabletop mountain walled by 400-metre cliffs where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet, climbed over several days onto a summit whose life exists nowhere else.

September·Quiet month

Sep–Nov

The rains ease off their June peak but stay well above the dry months: the savanna is still green, the fords are falling and the trail slowly firms toward December, though cloud still often hides the summit. Nothing closes; guides run all year.

Year-round The summit stands behind 400-metre walls and can be reached only up its single ramp, with licensed Pemón guides. On top are a maze of black sandstone, quartz-strewn valleys, and sun-pitcher plants and pebble toads found nowhere else. It is open every day, and December to March is the dry trekking season.

Mount Roraima is a tabletop mountain standing where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet, the highest of the tepuis, walled on every side by cliffs 400 metres high. There is one weakness in that wall. A natural ramp leans against the cliff on the Venezuelan side. It is the only way up any tepui that does not call for ropes, and it makes this the one people can stand on top of. Getting to the foot of it takes days. The walk starts at the Pemón village of Paraitepui, where the road ends, and crosses open grassland with almost no shade, wading two rivers on the way. Partway across, a rise brings Roraima and its neighbour Kukenán into view together, each cut off by a sheer wall, the clearest look at how abruptly these mountains stand off the plain. The last camps sit under the cliff with the ramp still hidden overhead. The top is a maze of black sandstone cut into towers and gullies, and rain falls on it almost every day. You sleep in what the guides call hotels: flat dry ground under big overhangs, no walls, only a rock roof, and you wake inside drifting cloud with the stone dripping and nothing visible past it. The same rain gathers in round hollows worn into the sandstone, amber over the dark rock and cold enough to take your breath, and everyone gets in. Rain did the sorting in the Valley of Crystals too, where quartz locked in this two-billion-year-old rock lies loose in clusters, left behind as the softer sandstone wore away around it. Every piece stays where it lies. Cloud covers the summit most of the year and lifts for minutes at a time, long enough for you to see three countries at once. In the Pemón telling this mountain is the stump of a tree that once held every fruit in the world. When it was felled, the water that poured out set the region's rivers on their courses, and that is why they call Roraima the mother of all waters.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Roraima is usually wrapped in cloud — the summit clears for minutes at a time, so build spare days into the trek and the open, three-country views will eventually come.
You can climb only with a licensed Pemón guide from Paraitepui — independent ascents are barred and the round trip takes about six days, so book well ahead and plan the time.
Pack for cold, wet nights even this close to the equator — summit weather turns within minutes and you sleep in open rock shelters, so waterproofs, warm layers and sturdy boots matter.

Things to do

1
Trek across the Gran Sabana
The trek begins at the Pemón village of Paraitepui, the last point a road reaches, and crosses open grassland for days with a licensed guide and porters. There is almost no shade, two rivers have to be waded, and groups start early to camp beside the water. Partway across, a rise brings Roraima and its neighbour Kukenán into view together, each cut off by a sheer wall hundreds of metres high — the clearest look at how sharply the tepuis stand off the plain. The last camps sit at the foot of that cliff, with the route up still hidden overhead.
2
Camp beneath rock overhangs
Nights on the summit are spent in what the guides call hotels: flat, dry patches of ground beneath big sandstone overhangs. They have no walls, only a rock roof that keeps off the near-constant rain and wind, and even this close to the equator the nights are cold and damp at 2,810 metres. You wake inside drifting cloud, with the black rock dripping and almost nothing visible beyond the shelter.
3
Explore the Valley of Crystals
The Valley of Crystals is a stretch of the summit where clear quartz has collected in the hollows of the black sandstone, lying loose in clusters that crunch underfoot and flash whenever the sun breaks through the cloud. The crystals were locked in this two-billion-year-old rock and were left behind as rain slowly wore the softer sandstone away around them. Everything on the summit is protected, so guides ask visitors to look closely and leave every piece where it lies.
4
Relax in natural jacuzzis
Rain falls on the summit almost every day, and it gathers in round hollows worn into the black sandstone that trekkers call the jacuzzis. The water is rain, tinted amber where it lies over dark rock and plant debris, and it is cold enough to take your breath away. The pools sit a short walk from the summit camps, and most groups go in the middle of the day, when the cloud is likeliest to lift and the whole plateau falls quiet.

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Nearby

142 km