Upuigma-tepui, also known as El Castillo, is a

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

in Bolívar state,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

.Huber, O. (1995). Geographical and physical features. In: P.E. Berry, B.K. Holst & K. Yatskievych (eds.) '' Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana. Volume 1. Introduction.'' Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. pp. 1–61. A relatively isolated peak, both it and nearby Angasima-tepui lie just south of the vast Chimantá Massif, from which they are separated by the Río Aparurén valley. Upuigma-tepui is situated entirely within the bounds of Canaima National Park. The imposing peak of Upuigma-tepui has an elevation of around . Its highly uneven summit is dotted with numerous rock towers and deep

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...

s which make it practically impossible to traverse. Summit vegetation is predominantly in the form of tepui scrub and dense stands of herbaceous plants. The mountain has a summit area of and an estimated slope area of . The first documented people to climb Upuigma-tepui were John Arran, Ivan Calderon and

Steve Backshall Stephen James Backshall (born 21 April 1973) is an English naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's ''Deadly 60''. His other BBC work includes being part of the expedition teams in ''Lost Land of the Tiger'', ''Lo ...

, in 2007. Upon reaching the summit, they discovered several previously unknown species of plants and animals.Lost Land Of The Jaguar - The First Ascent of Upuigma Tepuis in Venezuela for BBC Natural History Unit
Adventure Camera.

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