Abaporu
2025 · 13 min · Sport Climbing · The North Face
Abaporu takes its name from the Brazilian painting, and its argument from the movement around it: consume what comes from elsewhere, digest it, make something that could only be yours. Felipe Camargo's ascent of a line at his home crag in the Serra do Cipó, proposed at 5.15b and the first of that grade in South America, is the climbing half of that idea.
The other half is the years of travel behind it, learning from the best climbers in the world on trips abroad and carrying what he learned back to Brazilian rock. The North Face produced it, Felipe co-directed with Marcos Ribas, and at thirteen minutes it stays with the one route and the one thesis instead of sprawling into a career retrospective.
Review
A thirteen-minute film with one route and one idea, and it holds to both. Felipe Camargo's ascent of Abaporu at his home crag in the Serra do Cipó, proposed at 9b (5.15b) and the first of that grade in South America, is the climbing half. The other half is the painting the route is named for and the argument behind it: take what comes from elsewhere, digest it, make something that could only be yours.
This is for climbers interested in where the top grades are going next. It is also for anyone tired of career retrospectives, because The North Face and co-director Marcos Ribas keep the film on the route and the thesis. Skip it if you want the whole Camargo story. Auto Retrato, his 5.15a at the same area, gets no time here.
What works is the closing boulder problem. Camargo fell nine times on it before the send, on what he described as probably the last good climbing day of the season, and the film lets those falls land. What it leaves out is the years of European travel that the thesis depends on. The film tells you he learned from the best abroad but does not show it.
Rock Trip, The North Face film where Camargo bolts new lines in Argentina with eight other athletes, is the group version of the same idea. Abaporu is the solo version, and the more focused film.
