Weekend Whipper: Gear Blows in a Nearly 200-Foot Brazilian Hand Crack

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This Weekend Whipper brings us to the jungle of Sapopema, in southern Brazil, where Iacami Gevaerd was trying to keep his hands dry in the hot, humid air.

His goal was to send a legendary, 190-foot hand crack called Fenda do Macaco (5.11) on lead. The basalt rope-stretcher translates in English to “Monkey’s Crack,” and it’s a tough challenge for slippery tropical conditions.

“I was already tired [65 feet] before the fall,” he tells Climbing.

When the climbing got thinner, Gevaerd held on as long as he could, then let go, ripping a Black Diamond #1 Camalot that extends his fall to about 20 feet before his #4 catches him.

In the last instant of the fall, Gevaerd got his wrist caught in the rope and suffered a coin-sized rope burn. He calls it the biggest fall of his life—and despite the rope burn, insists that he had an “amazing” time on the route.

“It’s not every day that you have the chance to push it and allow yourself to take some risk,” he says. “That route is perfect for it.”

Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.

Footage by Lucas Zimmerman

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