The Pico Cão Grande ( Portuguese for "Great Dog Peak") is a landmark needle-shaped

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcano, volcanic object created when magma hardens within a Volcanic vent, vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if risi ...

peak in

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

, in the

Caué District Caué is a district of São Tomé and Príncipe, on São Tomé Island. Covering , it is the largest of the nation's seven districts in terms of area. In population it is the smallest, with 6,031 residents (2012).São Tomé Island São Tomé Island, at , is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in May 2018 to about 193,380 or 96% of the nation's population. The island is divided into six districts of São Tomé and Príncipe, districts. It is located ...

in Parque Natural Obô de São Tomé. Its summit is above sea level, and it rises about over the surrounding terrain. The volcanic plug was formed by magma solidifying in the vent of an active volcano. The nearest village is

Vila Clotilde Vila Clotilde is a village in Caué District on São Tomé Island in São Tomé and Príncipe. Its population is 53 (2012 census).São João dos Angolares São João dos Angolares is a small town on the east coast of São Tomé Island in São Tomé and Príncipe. It is the seat of Caué District. Its population is 3,605 (2012).

is 9 km to the east.

Geology

The volcanic plug is quite a recent phenomenon, having formed as part of the

Cameroon line The Cameroon line (, , ) is a long chain of volcanoes that includes islands in the Gulf of Guinea and mountains on the African mainland, from Mount Cameroon on the coast towards Lake Chad on the northeast. They form a natural border between ea ...

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

es roughly three and a half million years ago in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58phonolite Phonolite is an uncommon shallow intrusive or extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a var ...

(also called clinkstone in vernacular English).

Rock climbing

The moss growing on the rocks due to high moisture content, and the presence of snakes, make climbing here very difficult. The first attempt to climb Pico Cão Grande was made in 1975 by a Portuguese team of climbers. However the first successful ascent was achieved in February 1991 by a Japanese team consisting of Yosuke Takahashi, Kenichi Moriyama, and Naotoshi Agata. In June 2016, Gareth Leah, from England, and Sergio Almada, from Mexico, established a new bolt-protected route on the peak. The pair spent four weeks on the peak producing a route which they named Nubivagant ("ascent into the clouds"). The route is 15 pitches (455 metres) in length and is graded F8b (5.13d). They climbed all but three pitches clean. The route is both extremely long and technically very demanding, and their climb was plagued with difficulties, including snakebites and blown battery chargers. The most difficult portions of the climb are in the first 100 meters, after which the difficulty drops considerably. In July 2018, the Spanish brothers Iker and Eneko Pou completed a multi-day team redpoint ascent of a new route. They established the route ground up and without use of aid or removable bolts. The route is called Leve Leve and graded F8b+ (5.14a). They were also able to make the first all-free ascent of Nubivagant in team redpoint style over two days. This was followed two weeks later by another all-free ascent by a team of Americans, Sam Daulton and Remy Franklin.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cao Grande Pico Mountains of São Tomé and Príncipe Caué District Volcanic plugs of Africa