Selado Peak

 

Selado peak is the highest peak of Monte Verde village, south of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and all the cities nearby. Monte Verde is well known as the “brazilian Switzerland” since the city is actually a small village with one main street and around 20 others crossing that one, with a number 20.000 people living there. The houses and hotels and restaurants at the main street look like european. It is so small that is considered to be part of a bigger city called Camanducaia. The altitude of the city is 1.560 m. As the main summit and touristic spot, Selado Peak is often visited, daily, by dozens of people between Monday and Thursday, and at winter time, by hundreds daily between Fridays and Sundays. Monstly tourists looking for some ice in the woods, which can be found in winter since the temperature can easily drop to –5°C and of course, there’s the humidity typical of the brazilian rainforests. In 2008, Monte Verde won the title of best winter destination in Brazil. In 2009, the title of most romantic city in the poll held by the site Viajeaqui http://viajeaqui.abril.com.br/especiais/cidades-romanticas-2009 and Quatro Rodas magazine, published by Editora Abril. If it were a city, it would be the second highest city of Brazil, the first one is Campos de Jordão, at 1.628 m high. Also a touristic winter place. Several agencies and guides take people daily to the Peak, low prices. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Monte Verde was: –14°C! Pretty cold ah?!

Main mountain page photo: Selado Peak is the first one at right. View from Plateau summit at 1.900m.

Getting There

That’s the main problem. If you go by car, from Camanducaia there is a sand road to get up there. If you go by bus, from São Paulo or Rio take a bus to Camanducaia, south of Minas Gerais. From there 4 buses depart to the village daily. It is really cheap. If you lose the last bus, it’s better to spend the night at Camanducaia and leave in the morning.

The trail: Very easy, you can’t miss it. Once you get in the city look for the street that has a bank at the corner, BRADESCO BANK. Take that street and keep going up until you reach a huge water deposit. At your right there will be a sign telling you the distance and altitude to the peak. After about one hour you’ll be at a huge plateau at 1.900m, another summit of the area. From there you will be able to see Selado Peak for the first time. Still a little far away, but not much. Follow the wide open trail to the summit (about 1-2 hours) and here we go. But that’s not the summit yet, to get to the real summit, circle around the huge boulder rock (cracked in the middle), climb it from behind, and once you get to the top, one last task to sign the visitors book: the “cat jump”. Jump to the other side of the crack where it lies the metal box which contains the book. Be careful, DON’T MISS THAT JUMP or else you can get a broken leg or something.

Photo gallery (summit views)

Me at the summit.





300° of summit view.

Camping

 
Anywhere you want. Just respect the nature and wildlife. That is a really good place to camp by the summit block of Selado Peak. It is protected from winds and tourists.



Video from the summit of Selado Peak at sunset time.

Weather Forecast

You can hike this mountain in all seasons, but in summer there are rains every day. In winter is cold, but the days are clearer. The temperatures going from -10°C to 15°C.
Best time to climb: April to September.

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 Selado Peak Image Gallery - 6 Images