Morro do Tartarugão

 
Morro do Tartarugão, or Big turtle Peak if you will, is a great rocky mountain directly southwest of Pedra da Mina Peak at Serra Fina, Brazil. Forgotten by the brazilian mountaineering community, hardly you hear someone say that reached its summit. The brazilian authority responsible for the mountains registry, IBGE, documents its altitude as 2.595 meters high. I disagree with that since a few weeks ago I was on its summit with a friend, I had my GPS and he had his, and we got two different altitude measures: One of 2.631 meters high and the other of 2.636 meters high. There was no pressure variation, so it is more likely we got an pretty good accuracy for the measure.

That mountain is one of several summits of Serra Fina range, but at this place, most of the mountains not even have a name for it. I saw and photographed myself at least ten different summits worthy of an name. In fact, I am setting up some data to sugest IBGE a new brazilian summit, which can be 9th highest brazilian peak if my guess is right. But the only ones with a name and the proper registry are:

Pedra da Mina - 2.798 m. (4th highest peak of Brazil)
Pico dos 3 Estados - 2.665 m.
Pico Cabeça de Touro - 2.649 m.
Morro do Tartarugão - 2.631 m.
Morro do Melano - 2.566 m. (it has a name but not recognized by IBGE!)
Pico Alto do Capim Amarelo - 2.500 m.

Getting There

  
There is 3 possible ways to get to that mountain, and for each one of them, first of all, you have to manage your way to a little city of Minas Gerais called Passa Quatro. From there, get yourself a private transport to one of the spots in red, depending of your choice:

First: SPOT: TOCA DO LOBO FARM: Starting the Serra Fina traverse from the west side. First summit: Alto do Campim Amarelo (1 night), after that Morro do Melano and Pedra da Mina summit (1 night). Start from there or from Capim Amarelo since the mountain kinda is on the way to Pedra da Mina summit.

Second: SPOT: SITIO DO PIERRE: Starting from the Serra Fina traverse from the northeast side route. First summit: Pico dos 3 estados (1 night), second summit: Cupim do boi, third summit: Pedra da Mina (1 night) and go from there in the next morning.

Third: SPOT: SERRA FINA FARM: A hardly used route for this mountain and the one i did (usualy people use this route to get to Pedra da Mina and come back to the farm): Starting from Serra Fina Farm, hike up to Pedra da Mina by the north side, 1 night. Go from there.

 

Red Tape

Take your garbage with you!!!
Be careful, Serra Fina has a well known problem with water, find a gps archive to get the water spots, you don't wanna run out! During day time it is hot, but at the night, winter time, it can drop to -13°C. Cold!

Camping

Camping is permited anywhere you want inside the Sierra. Please look for ready camping sites along the traditional trailhead.
Toca do Lobo Farm, Maracanã camp site, Alto do Capim Amarelo summit, valley after Morro do Melano (beside the red waterfall), Pedra da Mina summit, Pedra da Mina base, Ruah valley, small summit after Ruah valley, base of Cabeça de Touro Peak, 3 Estados Peak summit, and Sítio do Pierre. Plenty of places!

Weather Forecast

PS: The weather forecast on this link is not for this mountain but it will do just fine since the mountain from the forcast (Mina Rock) is close enough. The same mountain range.

Legal Issues

To hike/ climb is a dangerous activity and requires proper equipment and clothing, the owner of this page cannot be blamed by injuries caused to anyone who read this page for its info about the mountain, and eventually got hurt by doing so with reckless behaviour or bad weather conditions.

Paulo Roberto Felipe Schmidt – AKA: PAROFES

External Links

My youtube channel: www.youtube.com/parofes - Now with 270+ videos online!

The biggest brazilian website about climbing and mountaineering, for which I'm a columnist:

Images

View Morro do Tartarugão Image Gallery - 5 Images