Climbing
Join Sasha DiGiulian on an all-female climbing expedition to Africa
Sasha DiGiulian and Angela Vanweermisch summited one of the hardest big walls in the world, a volcanic rock tower on the remote São Tomé island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
São Tomé is a tiny, jungle-choked island off the west coast of Africa that boasts a massive rain forest, crystal clear waters, volcanic rock and white sand beaches. Standing out amongst this scenery is the Pico Cão Grande, a solitary volcanic spire that rises high above the surrounding landscape.
Checking out the route
© Savannah Cummins
The volcanic spire of Pico Cão Grande
© Savannah Cummins
Packing all the gear for the expedition
© Savannah Cummins
Trekking through the jungle
© Savannah Cummins
Professional rock climber Sasha DiGiulian is always ready to push the boundaries of her climbing ability and enlisted the company of fellow climber Angela Vanweermisch and photographer Savannah Cummins. They set-off on a three-week venture to claim the first-female ascent of the Leve Leve (5.14a) route on Pico Cão Grande. But 17 days of rain meant they had to change their plans. Join Sasha below as she talks through the trip.
Why did you pick this route?
Ready for adventure
© Savannah Cummins
I was first inspired by Pico Cão Grande through reading about the Pou brother's expedition and Gaz Leah. Gaz Leah did the first ascent of this climb in 2016 and the Pou brothers did the first free ascent in 2018. The jungle tower looked like something I'd never seen before – straight out of Lord Of The Rings or something. It was the perfect balance of adventure and challenge, so I started planning how it would be possible to get there.
Did the trip go to plan?
We chose the route Nubivigant (5.13d) after originally arriving with the goal of climbing Leve Leve. Leve Leve is predominantly trad and Nubivigant has bolts. We experienced 17 consecutive days of rain, which heightened the danger of climbing immensely and also caused our gear to not hold within the mossy crack systems.
Rain meant that their gear wouldn't hold in the mossy cracks
© Savannah Cummins
We had just about packed our bags, ready to leave, deeming it to be impossible with the weather we had. We also had TV-sized rock craters fall centimeters away from us. This would have killed us instantly. After a final very close call, we decided that the risk of fatality was just too high and it wasn’t safe to continue.
High above the rainforest
© Savannah Cummins
Consistent rain makes rock falls much worse, especially while climbing in the rain on wet rock. Then, on the 18th day, the skies magically opened, providing this slight possibility that the last few days of our trip could be our only possibility to summit.
What was it like to eventually scale the tower?
Climbing the tower was like climbing a waterfall – a totally different type of climbing than I‘ve experienced before. I didn't use my chalk bag at all, for instance, since chalk just made it worse.
Setting off early to the summit
© Savannah Cummins
They climbed until dark and then took shelter
© Savannah Cummins
Teamwork makes the dream work
© Savannah Cummins
Summit push
© Savannah Cummins
The weather held overnight, so we left the ground at 3am. We climbed to dust at 6pm and took shelter in a small bivy on the edge of the cliff, nestled by a tree. We summited the next day just after noon. The next day, the skies opened and it started to rain heavily again.
What was it like when you eventually made it to the top?
The summit was actually anticlimactic, because it was a very vegetated top. We had to bushwack our way through to the top of this upper tier jungle. The view was more theoretical than this big exposure.
Celebrating at the summit
© Savannah Cummins
Also, when we got to the top, I knew that getting back down was still going to be a lot of effort and high risk, given how loose and wet the rock was. Rappelling through this terrain can ignite massive rock falls and during the upper pitches of the climb, we were very exposed.
Upper sections were very exposed
© Savannah Cummins
The tower is the tallest feature by far on the island. Summiting sunk in on reaching the ground and once we were all off the wall and safe. It was an absolutely overwhelming feeling of gratitude, relief, happiness, excitement and exhaustion. I'm so proud of our team.
Any sketchy moments?
On the day that we decided to call it and deemed the climbing to be too dangerous, I was on lead and gently pressed a rock to my left with my hand to test it and the entire face of the cliff lodged off the wall.
The rocks ricocheted down, skimming the belay and just missed my rope. I was climbing through waterfall-like conditions, where I wished I had swimming goggles so I could look up without my eyes getting punished with rain.
They experienced some big rock falls
© Savannah Cummins
There was a lot of waiting in the rain and in the jungle during this trip. How did you guys stay sane and fit?
We spent a lot of our days still being active on the wall, trying to climb through the wet rock, setting our static lines to work on pitches and having hope that one day it would stop raining.
Staying active on the wall
© Savannah Cummins
It’s that way
© Savannah Cummins
Playing about above camp
© Savannah Cummins
So much wet gear...
© Savannah Cummins
It was tough, though. Also, to shower we had to hike down to the river, over an hour round trip, just to bathe. Afterwards, my body felt totally wrecked and worked. I always feel weaker after expeditions.
How does this experience compare to your other climbing achievements?
This was by far the most adventurous and mentally taxing experience of my career. As for climbing achievement, it’s tough to scale, because it felt more like a prolonged struggle and challenge to perseverance and ability to mitigate risk and stay as safe as possible than it was to just purely rock climb.
This was the most adventurous and mentally taxing experience of her career
© Savannah Cummins
I’m disappointed that we didn't get to free climb Leve Leve, absolutely, but I’m confident that we made the best decision given our circumstances (the locals even told us that this was the worst weather they'd seen in many years) and I’m so grateful that we all survived to tell the tale and be the first women to stand on top of such a crazy feature that took so much out of us.
What has this inspired you to do in the future?
Sasha and Angela take a breather
© Savannah Cummins
I’m so inspired to figure out my next adventure and I also feel really empowered by the team of women I was with. This certainly will not be the last climb that Savannah, Angela and I take on together. This trip provided me with a summit, but more importantly, it reinforced my love for adventure, my drive to learn what else is possible, to see more incredible places and it tied me closer to two truly inspirational women.
