Via Maria Nebula – 20 years later

Some routes are more difficult than others… An example for me was the Dedo de Deus, which I tried to climb for the first time in 1996 and only reached the summit in 2002. It took about six attempts before everything finally worked out. Everything happened: rain at the base, lightning, a partner who fell ill and even a monstrous collapse that destroyed the old trail, which I only found out about when I got there. Anyway, one day it works out and since 2002 there have been several summits on the Dedo. With the Maria Nebulosa, a giant route in the beautiful Maria Comprida, I went through this too, and it only worked on the fourth attempt.

Photo: Hugo de Castro

If I’m not mistaken, it’s a route I conquered in 2002, and at that time I was working in the climbing industry. As soon as I heard that there was a route of over a thousand meters near Rio, I immediately set off with a friend. This must have been around 2004 and at that time there was no Waze, no YouTube, none of these tools that help so much, it was just reports and texts that I picked up on the FEMERJ mailing list and Hang On, that’s right… these were the climbing discussion/information forums at the time and only those who have chewed Banda candy and eaten Mirabel in the playground will remember this. A few days later, we booked a hostel in Secretário (the Petrópolis district where Maria Comprida is located), set off to reconnoitre and couldn’t find the base – we couldn’t even get to the end of the road where the walk to the base should have started. A new attempt in 2008 with the same strategy: hostel and getting up early to access the base, this time with more information, and… rain! Thunderstorm in the morning and an early return home. I didn’t give up and in a few years I was going to go back. I went back in 2018! And now the strategy was different. I went one morning with my partner with the sole aim of locating the base, so that I could return the following week without wasting time, and this time everything worked out. Using the tips on Mauro Chiara’s Classic Climbing website, this guy is a real “walking Google”, we reached the end of the road where you leave the car and jump over the gate, accessed the trail and in about an hour we were at the base of the route. Mission accomplished! Now all we had to do was go back the following week – easy, right? Wrong! A few days after reaching the base, life kicked me in the ass in a way that makes you think you’ll never get up again, so I took a break from climbing for a couple of years and stopped thinking about Maria Comprida, Nebulosa or anything else… I went on vacation from living for a while. I’m sure you’ve heard this super cliché phrase: “Everything passes” … And believe me, it’s true. Everything passes and it really did. I recovered and little by little I began to resume projects that had been in the back of my mind, until it was time for Nebula. In 2024 I invited my friend and partner Bruno Negreiros, who was thrilled and accepted the invitation on the spot. We set the date and this time the strategy was different: we arrived in Secretario on Friday at around 1pm, left our things at the hostel and set off for the base with the aim of not only reconnoitring, but also leaving two fixed points on the wall. Everything went well!!! With the tips of Alex Tchê (one of the conquerors of the route) and Felipe Lombardi (Drone Aventura), we reached the base of the route without any major problems, climbed up to P2 and left the ropes fixed. By 6pm we were back at the hostel to rest and focus on the next day’s climbing, which started at exactly 6am on Saturday.

Ropes fixed, ready to go.

Leaving the first two sections fixed helped a lot, after all there are 1040 meters of track and 20 sections. The weather was perfect, cloudy and the temperature just right. We reached the summit at midday, an excellent time to enjoy a snack and start the descent calmly, knowing that we still had hours of light ahead of us. We set foot on terra firma (what a turn of phrase, huh?! I like it…) at 6:50 p.m. and by 8 p.m. we were already in a bakery, crushed and happy.

Perfect weather for climbing a long route like Maria Nebulosa

Photo at the summit

That’s it! Maria Nebulosa 20 years later. Mission accomplished!

The Via Maria Nebula

The road underwent a recent renovation and there’s no one better than Tchê to talk about it, so watch this video published by Alta Montanha:

In fact, the exhibition seems to have become more social and has a lot of brand-new protection, but it’s still an E3 route and in some places E4 for sure. As a friend of mine once put it, you can divide Maria Nebulosa into three distinct parts and it was with this in mind that we entered the track.

Playing up! Only 18 more to go

The first part is the first 4 pitches, a climb with a lot of grip and some hold, with many 4th pitches and some 4+ pitches… Those who aren’t used to grip may not feel very comfortable, but I think the suggested grade is very fair. After P4 comes a sequence of very easy pitches, including 2nd pitches, so it’s time to save time and play the Frenchwoman and that’s what Bruno and I did, climbing simultaneously from P4 to P13, where there’s a huge plateau of scrubland, from where the third and final part of the route begins.

Start of the French thrusts

From P13 onwards, the route becomes more interesting and vertical, there’s a crux of 5º, a protected belay (very well protected) on mobile and one or two other pitches that are a little more spicy. That’s it! The summit of Maria Nebulosa!

Happy face after completing the mission

All we had to do was sign the summit book, have a snack and start the descent. 20 rappels, which are only possible with two 60m ropes. Another option is to hike down, but we didn’t think it was worth it. You’d have to find someone to rescue you at the trailhead, since it’s on the opposite side of the climb, and you’d also have to ask permission to pass through the grounds of a condominium… No problem! Let’s go abseiling! It’s worth watching this beautiful video made by my friend Felipe Lombardi, Drone Aventura. You can see the magnificence of this mountain in detail:

Thanks Bruno for the partnership! Soon we’ll be getting into more trouble.

Abs and good climbing!