New 22-Pitch Route on Brazil Big Wall Goes at 5.13
An team of strong climbers has established an 800-metre new route on Pedra Baiana in Brazil, climbing a line they have named Sintonia (5.13 C1, 800 m, 22 pitches). The route was opened by Brazilian climbers Gisely Ferraz and Danielle Pinto, French climber Laura Pineau, American climber Miya Tsudome and Julia Trojan.
Pineau, who reported the ascent, said the project had been a long-held ambition. After spending a year climbing and travelling in Yosemite, she decided to travel to Brazil, learn the language and take on the challenge of establishing a major new route. “Big, scary challenges have always had a way of attracting me,” Pineau wrote in a report on Planet Mountain.
“When we first saw Pedra Baiana, we were honestly intimidated. The wall was enormous, steep, and incredibly impressive. But we were committed.”
The team initially investigated a line on one side of the wall, but abandoned it after two pitches when they encountered a blank section. A drone reconnaissance further to the right revealed what appeared to be a viable line through lower cracks leading to a prominent pillar and a large headwall.
The team began bolting on Aug. 2, with Pinto establishing the first pitch and Ferraz opening the following two, including an inverted offwidth. The climbers continued up a varied line featuring cracks, pillars, slabs and steep headwall terrain. By the eighth pitch, they had reached a large ledge that became their bivouac site.
While establishing a pitch high on the headwall with Trojan, Pineau was using locally known Negocinhos, or Brazilian hooks, which hold under downward loading but can dislodge when pulled away from the rock. After five hours of work, Pineau was exhausted and dehydrated and still some distance from her last bolt. While leaning backwards to look over an overhang, the hook released.
“I was flying. Upside down. I fell with my drill, hammer, and all my bolting equipment,” Pineau reported. “It was the scariest fall of my life.”
Pineau said she was unable to breathe for several seconds following the fall, while Tsudome and Trojan below initially feared they would need to organise a rescue. She eventually managed to communicate that she was okay and needed time to recover. It proved to be the closest call of the expedition. The team made its final summit push on Aug. 20. Starting at 4 a.m., Pinto and Trojan continued opening pitches while Ferraz, Tsudome and Pineau worked on pitch nine before the group regrouped and continued upwards.
Ferraz led the final two pitches, negotiating large loose blocks as the team reached the summit. At approximately 4:30 p.m. on August 20, 2026, all five climbers stood on top of Pedra Baiana, having completed the 800-metre route.
They named the line Sintonia, Portuguese for “harmony.” According to Pineau, the name reflects the teamwork required to complete the project, rather than simply the physical demands of the climbing.
“Reaching the summit required more than just being strong and resilient,” she wrote. “We had to find harmony with each other, trust one another, and learn to move in sync with the rock, the wall, and the ever-changing conditions.”
Pineau said the team hopes future climbers will experience the same sense of connection on the route. “Now, the route is there for the next team to experience,” she wrote. “We hope that every climber who comes to Pedra Baiana to climb Sintonia will find their own sense of harmony on the wall.”