Pico Bolivar – Venezuela Highpoint

Pico Bolivar – Venezuela Highpoint

July 11-15, 2026

4980m

Eric, Juan, Giovanny

July 9 – flight Puerto Ordaz to El Vigia, taxi to Merida
July 10 – buffer day in Merida
July 11 – hike to Pedro’s house, 3200m
July 12 – hike to Mezo camp, 4200m
July 13 – bad weather day, stay in camp
July 14 – summit, back to camp
July 15 – hike to Merida

Pico Bolivar is one of the few locations in Venezuela that gets cold enough to have snow, and it even used to have a few glaciers. However, due to global warming the last glaciers on Bolivar disappeared between roughly 2017 to 2020. The last surviving glacier in Venezuela was the Corona Glacier on nearby Humboldt Peak, but that officially disappeared in 2024. Snow still falls on the summit of Bolivar, though.

Bolivar was first climbed in 1935 by Bourgoin, Molina, and Saavedra, and the easiest route up is a technical rock climb on the south face. In 1960 a cable car was constructed from the town of Merida at the base to nearby Pico Espejo at 4700m. This is the highest cable car in the world and the second longest. The standard approach to Bolivar since 1960 has been to take the cable car to Pico Espejo, and hike to the south face from there. 

Between 2008-2016 the cable car was closed, and the approach was to hike from Merida or Nevado village. Since 2016 the cable car has been mostly operational though. 

The ideal time of year to climb Bolivar is during the dry season between December to March when rainfall is rare. The wettest months are August and September when it rains or snows most days. Shoulder season months are April-July and October – November. 

Venezuela has been off limits for Americans for about the past ten years for political reasons, so I wasn’t able to climb Bolivar. However, in January 2026 the US captured the Venezuelan president Maduro, and the political situation changed. In late March Venezuela opened an evisa system and allowed US citizens to apply for tourist visas. I know political situations like this can be unstable, so I made plans to visit Venezuela as soon as possible.

My classes end in mid, June so I planned to go to Venezuela soon after. I would climb Pico Bolivar and also Mt Roraima, the Guyana highpoint which is accessed from the Venezuela side. The timing would not be ideal since it would be the rainy or shoulder season but I would try to make it work. I would climb both peaks with Jared. 

Pico Bolivar is in the Sierra Nevada National Park and nowadays climbers are legally required to hire a local guide to climb the peak. My friends connected me with Giovanny and Juan, and we made plans to do a four day climb using the cable car and stopping at a few intermediate stations to camp and acclimate along the way. 

On May 6 I sent in my application for the Venezuela evisa, and that started a long and complicated process of rejections and corrections. Full details can be found in the Mt Roraima report. The situation was greatly complicated by an earthquake hitting Caracas the day before I planned to enter Venezuela.

 

I eventually got the visa emailed to me two days before entering the country. I then managed to get in to Venezuela with no Venezuela stamp in my passport and with Jared staying home since his visa never got approved.

I spent a week climbing Mt Roraima, which I measured and determined is the true highpoint of Guyana. On Friday, July 3, I drove back from the trailhead to Santa Elena, the town in Venezuela closest to the Brazil border. 

My plan was to then take a taxi to Puerto Ordaz, the nearest town in Venezuela with an airport, then fly to Caracas then to El Vigia, the nearest airport to Pico Bolivar. 

However, I heard there were many checkpoints on the road and I wouldn’t get through those or be able to board a flight without the entry stamp in my passport. 

In addition to this complication, the Caracas airport was closed indefinitely due to damage from the earthquake. And the Sierra Nevada National Park was closed indefinitely so park staff could help with earthquake recovery operations. 

It looked like the cards were not in my favor for climbing Bolivar. But I’d built in a lot of buffer time in my schedule and decided to tackle one problem at a time. First, I needed the stamp. But the border was closed all weekend. So I spent two days in Santa Elena, hiking some nearby peaks. 

On Monday morning Antonio, my guide from Roraima, took a taxi with me to the border and we talked to the agents to get a stamp. I showed the agent my visa and he said the visa was good and now the online system was fixed from the earthquake and they could log in. Everything sounded great. But then when he heard I was planning to take a taxi to Puerto Ordaz, the situation changed. He said the road was too dangerous and he wouldn’t let me do it and wouldn’t stamp my passport. 

He said I had to go back to Boa Vista,  Brazil, and fly to Puerto Ordaz. 

I spent an hour trying to figure out logistics of that with Antonio and it didn’t seem like I could make that work. There was supposedly a once a week flight from Boa Vista to Puerto Ordaz that didn’t show up online. Then there was a once a week flight from Puerto Ordaz to El Vigia that also didn’t show up online. They were the same day and left at the same time, so it was not possible to take both without waiting in one town for a week. Also, I couldn’t buy a domestic flight within Venezuela by myself since I don’t have a venezuelan ID card. 

Antonio went back to discuss with the agent and told him the dilemma. The agent then told us if I came back in the afternoon and talked to his boss and convinced his boss that I would be ok driving to Puerto Ordaz, then he would approve. He recommended I print out proof of flight out of Venezuela (not from Caracas since that airport was closed), and print out proof of a guided trip up Pico Bolivar. 

That sounded good to me, so Antonio and I took a taxi back to Santa Elena. I was also advised I should pass the agent a small bribe to grease the wheels. On the way back we got stopped at a military checkpoint and they were not happy that I didn’t have a stamp in my passport. Last time I’d snuck through but not this time. So I passed the guy a few Reals and he let me through. 

Back in town I purchased a flight out of Valencia, the airport that was taking over operations from Caracas. Then I found a website for Giovanny for Pico Bolivar. After trying a few places in town we found one with a working printer and printed out the documents. Then by noon I got in another taxi back to the border. 

The boss was there this time and lucky for me he spoke English. I explained all the details of my plan for the rest of my stay in Venezuela and showed him all the documents. I think Americans haven’t passed through that border for many years and that may have complicated the situation. But eventually everyone approved of my plan. They had to take a video of me explaining my detailed plan in Spanish, and I think they would submit that to higher authorities. Then I finally got the stamp. I made sure to grease the wheels too. 

I was almost disappointed it was only a tiny little stamp and not some huge full-page sticker, after all that work. But then I knew I could finally get through checkpoints. 

The remaining challenges were getting a flight to El Vigia and the problem that the park was still closed. Antonio had a contact at a travel agency who could buy the flight for me and I could pay them over Zelle. It was a once a week flight on Thursdays, so I bought it. I figured I might as well keep making my way towards Pico Bolivar and worst case wait around at the base in Merida until the park opened (if it reopened).

I had already arranged a taxi ride with another tour operator company, and on Tuesday morning I got picked up from town. 

I shared the ride with three other passengers, who were all women. This made me think the road was likely pretty safe and the border agents were just making things up when they said it was dangerous. 

Indeed, we didn’t encounter any problems, and after 12 hours on the road I got a dropped off at a hotel a few blocks from the airport. The taxi driver advised that I shouldn’t walk around there alone at night but during the day it was safe. 

I had a buffer day in town Wednesday so I walked around to some interesting parks near some waterfalls. There are hydroelectric dams in Puerto Ordaz that provide a lot of electricity for the country. That morning Giovanny texted me that the park had just reopened, so I was glad to be making my way there. 

Thursday my flight was supposed to take off at 10am, but it got delayed to 10pm. As I would discover, domestic flights within Venezuela are very unreliable, likely complicated by the earthquake damage. But my high water mark for a flight delay is 17 days (getting out of Qaanaaq Greenland), so 12 hours was no problem.

I walked around town some more, then flew to El Vigia by midnight. I had arranged a taxi in advance with the same operator, and we made quick time getting to Merida. I’d been advised the drive took 1.5-2 hours, but my driver got there in closer to 1 hour. 

Interestingly, it appears traffic lights are more like yield signs in Venezuela. If the light is red, you slow down but keep going if there’s no oncoming traffic. If the light is green, you also slow down in case cross traffic is running the light. If you are brave you can maintain speed going through a green light as long as you honk in advance to warn cross traffic. 

I stayed at the Hotel Plaza, the cheapest place I could find online near the city center. The next morning I met Juan and Gio and we sorted out logistics. The plan was they would get permits, food, mules, and gear sorted that day and we’d start up the next morning. 

The cable car was closed for repairs and it wasn’t supposed to open for at least another month (but nobody knew for sure). So we would do the climb the old fashioned way hiking up. That would be better for acclimation anyways. The trip would take six days, which I just barely had time for given the flight I’d purchased out of Valencia. 

The plan was to hike up to 3200m the first day to Pedro’s house. Then the second day hike to 4200m. Then the third day to Pico Espejo at 4700m. We’d then summit on day 4 and return to Pico Espejo. Days 5 and 6 would be hiking out.

The rest of the day I hiked up a few peaks near town called Cerro Flores and Loma de la Virgen. These had good trails and didn’t go into any national parks, so I didn’t need to worry about permits. And it was a fun 11 mile hike starting from my hotel. 

July 11

We left town the next morning and drove about 45 minutes to the trailhead just northeast of Merida near the Quebrada El Encierro River at 1900m. Hacinto soon arrived with a mule and we loaded up our three packs on it. We then started up around 9am with day packs while Hacinto hiked up with his dog and the mule.

The trail climbed steeply out of town and soon entered the forest. After an hour we reached a trail intersection and took a break, and then two park rangers emerged from the side trail. Gio pulled out our permit and they took pictures of it and of all of us together. I think the park hasn’t been seeing as many visitors since the cable car closed down, so they were really just hiking up there to check on us.

We hiked up a bit farther and then Pedro came hiking down to meet us. He also had a mule, and two dogs. One of the dogs, Chapayo, was 17 years old and still going strong! 

Hacinto and Pedro split the gear between the two mules and then we continued up to Pedro’s house at 3200m by noon. Interestingly, Pedro’s grandfather was the guide for the first ascent team to climb Bolivar in 1935. The house was built in 1875 at the edge of treeline and Pedro’s family has been living there ever since. The park was created in 1950 but the house is allowed to stay as long as it is kept in the family.

 Now Pedro operates it as a guest house for tourists. Hacinto lives in a house about 45 minutes away by another trail, and he is in a similar situation where his family lived there before the park. He provides his mules for service for hikers and climbers in the park. 

Pedro’s house is at the edge of treeline and it has a great view of Merida and surrounding peaks. We got a good view of Bolivar, but by later in the afternoon it got socked in with clouds and stared raining. 

July 12

The next day we loaded the mule and a horse with the big packs and hiked up with small day packs. Pedro joined with his two dogs and Hacinto took charge of the mule and horse. 

We took a short break at one of the cable car stations, then continued farther up the trail to a bench at 4200m called Mezo camp. This overlooks two small lakes called the lagos de Anteojos. After dropping off our gear around noon Pedro and Hacinto returned to their house and we set up camp.

That night I saw a lot of interesting lighting to the north. That is the area around Lake Maracaibo, well known as one of the areas with the most lighting storms on earth. 

The weather was very unsettle that night with heavy gusty wind that threatened to knock the tents over. It was challenging to get any sleep in.

July 13

The plan the next morning was to move camp to Pico Espejo, the highest cable car station at 4700m. However, it continued being rainy and windy all morning. Generally the wet weather gets worse in the afternoons during the wet season, so if it was already bad in the morning it likely would not improve.

Instead of getting soaked hiking through the rain we decided to modify our plan. We would spend a rest day in camp then start very early the next morning to still reach the summit on schedule. We would leave camp there instead of moving it to Pico Espejo. This wouldn’t be quite as good for acclimation but would save us the work of hauling the overnight gear up to 4700m.

So we rested in camp the rest of the day. Interestingly I saw two people riding horses along the trail, and I learned they were going to Nevado, a village on the southwest side of the mountains. This is the traditional route locals have been using for hundreds of years to get between Merida and Nevado, and it is still used sometimes instead of driving 4hr+ drive on rough roads. 

July 14

We got up at 2am, but it was lightly raining. We kept checking the weather every hour, and finally by 5am the rain stopped and we started up. 

The trail is mostly a climbers path above 4200m since it’s too steep and scrambly for mules. Sunrise soon hit us, though we were generally socked in the clouds without views. But at least it wasn’t raining.

After a few hours we crested the ridge near Pico Espejo and stopped for a breakfast break of arepas. The wind was strong and rime feathers had built up on the grass and rocks up there. 

We hiked past the cable car station socked in clouds, then scrambled down a very icy steep trail. The rocks were covered in verglass and we had to be super careful not to slip.

Eventually we started traversing on a good trail and reached a small rock shelter at the base of the south face of Bolivar at 4700m. This shelter was built in 2025. There’s an interesting little tarn just above the shelter where we stopped to rest.

We then continued up to the base of the climb, and the rocks were all coated in verglass again. I had brought crampons but unfortunately one pair of crampons hadn’t made it up the mountain. We weren’t sure in advance if they would be needed, but given the ice coating on the rocks they would indeed be critical. 

Gio volunteered to stay back and Juan and I would climb. We roped up and started at 830am with Juan leading all the pitches. It turns out the route has bolted rappel anchors and a few intermediate bolts on the climb, so it’s not really necessary to bring a trad rack.

The first pitch was slabby 4th class and angled up and right to a low angle choss gully after about 30m. From there was a 30m pitch along the low angle scree and choss that was class 2 or 3. 

At the top of the gully we encountered snow, and this actually felt much more secure than walking on verglassed slabs in crampons.

The third pitch was an easy snow gully leading up and right, and we shortened the rope and simulclimbed up the gully to a good bolted anchor. 

Above here the gully steepened and narrowed to be class 4. Juan climbed up a full rope length, then I followed kicking steps up and occasionally scrambling over rock steps. The route went under a huge boulder that formed a neat tunnel.

Pitch 5 was called the Diamond, I believe. From there we crossed a big bowl to the left, then scrambled up some rimed 4th class rock steps to a small col called the window. This separates the North and South faces and was very windy. 

From the notch we traversed right across the North face on an exposed but easy ledge, clipped on to a horizontal cable extending 10m. For this we shortened the rope by kiwi coiling it over our shoulder. This got us to the crux pitch.

This last pitch was maybe 5.6 for 20m and was fun climbing in crampons. I was surprised that the north face did not have any rime or snow on the rock while the south face was very icy. It’s possible the wind pattern coming from the SW to SE generally deposits rime more on the south face, but I’m not sure. Usually north faces are colder in the northern hemisphere. 

I suppose we could have removed our crampons for that pitch, but I didn’t want to risk dropping them off the face.

At the top of that pitch we crested the summit ridge. Juan then led out 10m along the ridge on exposed class 3 terrain and we made a handline out of the rope. I clipped on and scrambled over to the summit by 1030am. 

The top is marked with a huge 1m tall bust of Simon Bolivar, whom the peak is named after. I read this was hauled up in the 1950s in three sections and assembled on the summit. The true highest rock is a few meters beyond the bust, so we made sure to tag that.

Unfortunately we were socked in the clouds and it was very windy and threatening to start raining or snowing any minute. I had wanted to measure the summit elevation with my GNSS receiver, but unfortunately we couldn’t stay on the summit for more than about 5 minutes. I really need at least 30 minutes for a meaningful measurement (to get +/-0.1m vertical accuracy).

Bolivar was actually already measured with a GNSS receiver in 2003 by the Venezuelan government, and they reported an elevation of 4980.0m +/-0.35m. I could probably get tighter error bounds than that, but not given the conditions we had on the summit. So unfortunately I can’t update that elevation. 

After 5 minutes of taking pictures we quickly retreated. We scrambled back to the anchor, then took turns rapping down. I went first and Juan second on all the rappels. It felt so easy with the bolted rap anchors, compared to what I’m used to in the mountains. I guess the peak has been popular enough in the past that the bolted anchors make sense safety wise.

By 1230pm we finally reached our gear stashed at the base of the climb, just as it started raining. So we threaded the needle perfectly for timing, starting just after the rain ended, staying dry on the climb and rappel, then only getting wet on the hike out when it didn’t really matter. 

We had an easy time following the trail back, and luckily now the ice had melted off the rocks so the scrambling sections were easier. We made it back to camp by 4pm for an 11 hr round trip.

July 15

The next morning we left at 8am and hiked all the way back out to the trailhead by 2pm, then drove in to town. We were just in time to catch the Argentina-England world cup game that was showing all over town. (Basically everyone in Merida is an Argentina fan so they were happy with the outcome.)

 

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