Our itch to revisit Brazil, and to experience this rich country beyond the state of Rio de Janeiro, has been building steadily over the last seven years. We’ve been flipping through the 50 Classics book admiring all the unique looking formations and inspiring lines. Additionally, another set of email exchanges with Todd Swain reaffirmed how much he and his wife had enjoyed the climbing in Itatim; and Todd was kind enough to gift us the guidebooks for that place.
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Finally, in 2025 we pinged Adilio to ask if he and the crew would be willing to arrange another Brazil climbing outing for us. Same set up as in 2019: Shirley and I would climb by ourselves but they’d arrange all the logistics and could climb as their own independent team.
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Adilio was game and we quickly came up with a two-week long roadtrip itinerary starting in Rio de Janeiro and ending in Salvador in the state of Bahia. The filling would consist of trying to climb as many classic climbs along the way as we could manage.
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It turned out to be another great Brazil trip: awesome company, classic climbs despite (maybe because of?) some weather caused failures, towns and villages that surprised us, home made cachasa, and one epic traffic jam from hell. Another nice packet of memories.
All of the inspiration and most of the actual climbing beta (topos included) came from the beautifully written 50 Vias Classicas no Brasil by Flavio and Cintia Daflon (here). For Itatim, we used the 3-volume (though now I think they’ve been consolidated into a single, large tome) Montanhas de Itatim Bahia, Guia de Escalada book.
And, of course, we can’t recommend enough our friends’ services as either trip fixers or full on climbing guides!
