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- This morning, Free Solo's Alex Honnold,
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climbing in an unexplored rock formation deep in the Amazon known as "tepui."
And... and I worked with the team on this,
and have followed their journey. They brought along scientist Bruce Means,
who believes these tepuis are teeming with biodiversity.
He likened it to a hidden Galapagos, full of undiscovered species,
and wants to see them protected.
- All these tepuis, almost every one, has sometimes up to 1000-foot-tall
fringing summit cliffs.
And none of those have been explored for new species.
- I think most people are pretty surprised when they find out
that there are crazy towers out in the jungle.
It's like this mythical place, you know,
where there's stuff that's wilder than anything that you could make up,
and it really exists.
- Doing first ascents, I mean, it really is modern exploration,
because you are going onto, you know,
in this case, a piece of rock that no human has ever touched.
And so, you really don't know what you're gonna find.
You have to rein in the fear, rein in the uncertainty,
and then just remain calm as you literally step into the unknown.
- We're on an expedition
into the glorious heart of South America, the tepuis.
- I've been here with Bruce before.
The last time I was here was... was 2006. So, it's been 15 years,
and I've been trying to get back ever since.
- When Bruce and I did our first expedition here,
I witnessed this passion that he had for science.
I know on one of the trips, I think he found nine new species.
And I was like, "Oh. Holy..." Like this... this... what he's doing,
he's basically on a one-man mission to save this entire area...
by finding and cataloging enough new species to prove to the world
that it's this unrivaled biodiversity hotspot
that must be protected.
But he's nearly 80 years old now.
And there's one final place he has never been able to get to
to complete his work.
High on the cliff walls themselves.
-So, I called Alex Honnold.
- Alex is one of the boldest,
if not the single boldest climber in the world.
I told him what we were gonna try to do. And Alex loved the idea
of getting Bruce up the cliff, and Alex is a can-do kind of guy.
And he wants to make it happen.
- A trip like this with a renowned biologist,
with a great team, with a cool objective.
I mean, it's not the kind of thing that comes along all the time.
It's something that I've always wanted to do in my life.
My role on the trip is to make sure that we successfully climb the wall.
And I think that, you know, particularly with an 80-year-old man,
I mean... ...we're gonna be pretty careful about it.
But I think it'll be really scary.
-- Four thousand feet,
I had us veering off down at 3,750, which is the closest to the wall, or...
- But that's, like, 2,000 feet of vertical, huh?
-Bruce, is that adequate for you? -- Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I should be able to get specimens.
They have to be in museums to document that you found them,
and I need to get a little DNA from them.
And then don't you think, they have to deal also with a small area?
-- Yeah. -- Small.
-If we can just get you to the top... -- Yeah. Then we'll know.
...and, uh, you can do the full survey.
The very best-case scenario would be that the wall is steep enough
that the rope basically hangs freely down in a plumb line.
And then we basically haul him the way that you would haul a bag, like...
he would basically just be sitting on a little chair,
just slowly levitating up the wall, enjoying the view, looking for species.
Okay, but what if... what if it's not overhanging?
Then we'll have to do some improvising.
Thankfully, you brought a climber with you, and we'll sort it out,
-you know? -Yeah, well, I have Honnold to take.
But the problem is that Honnold,
even though he's all gung ho, he can't haul Bruce himself.
-No, no, but that's why we have a team. -He's gonna need some help.
-Yeah, that's probably true.
- Our climbing objective is deep in the Amazon jungle.
This is what the view looks like ahead.
Thirty-five miles of jungle trekking.
Well done, Bruce, cruising.
Being with Bruce in the jungle is an incredible way to appreciate
the diversity of life around.
I mean, he just knows the backstory of everything.
Oh. Look! Right there. Isn't that cool?
It's like going to a party with someone who knows everyone.
He's like, "That guy used to date that girl, and then they hung out,
"and then that person..." You know, he knows all the relationships.
And I think that as you appreciate the complex web of relationships
in the jungle more, it makes it much more engaging.
- Oh! Oh! Oh! Something good, y'all.
Spiders are predacious, and they usually eat each other,
so they're usually solitary.
But there are some that are colonial. And this is one of them.
That is cool. Wow.
His passion for nature is so inspiring to me.
Inspiring... not only as a biologist,
but as a person. And I'm honored to be in an expedition with him.
- This expedition is, uh, sort of the culmination
of all my work in South America.
This all started, you know, as a child when I began to appreciate nature
and wonder about the meaning of everything.
And I soon became fascinated by nine or ten years old with evolution.
So, I caught lizards, and snakes, and tarantulas, and scorpions.
Kept them in jars.
Oh. This is cool. You see the little yellow tail tip?
He's coming up.
And ultimately, it led me to this wonderful region...
-No, no, don't jump. -...and then fell in love with tepuis.
Don't jump off. There we go.
- Tepuis are sort of islands in the sky.
They were probably eroded into the sandstone from Africa
when South America and Africa were connected
millions and millions of years ago.
This expedition's the first expedition to attempt to look at the walls of tepuis
to see whether there are unique flora and fauna growing on those walls.
Hopefully, by assessing the species' richness
of this particular area, may compel government leaders
and the people of Guyana
to want to conserve this fabulous, beautiful place.
- This is his dream come true.
This... this trip, you know, could be kind of his magnum opus.
- That is cool. Wow.
- He's been on, uh,
33 tepui expeditions. He's never been on the cliff.
And so, that's what we're here to do, is to take Bruce on a journey
up to the top of the tepui itself to look for new species,
and to catalog, you know, what exists in this really, you know,
unique place in the world that scientists haven't really explored.
- Hey, Troy, how's the weather today?
-- It's uh, we... -Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah. -- No problem?
- Hiking through the jungle to approach the tepuis
is sort of an interesting experience, 'cause you start in the rainforest,
which is technical hiking, you know, stepping over roots, crossing streams.
And then each day gets progressively harder and harder
as you get closer to the tepuis, closer to the, uh, actual big walls,
because the terrain gets steeper and more vegetating.
You know, it just steadily builds on you the whole way.
You're like, "Oh. It just keeps getting worse."
"It keeps getting worse!"
- It's a war of attrition against the mud and saturation
when you're in these forests. So, it's hard.
Getting a little tiring now.
I think I've been doing this today...
...almost six hours.
- I'm a little concerned about Bruce.
Because the terrain is getting steeper and more complicated.
Bruce is, you know, just moving more slowly than we all anticipated.
With more difficulty. I think even he's, like, surprised
at how hard he's getting his butt kicked.
-Okay there, Bruce?
-I'm all right. -You okay?
-Yeah. -Okay.
It's hard, you know, not to worry
whether we're gonna be able to pull this off.
Keep on trucking!
-Only four more days to Double Drop. -- Yeah.
- Then we get to the gnarly part.
Careful, take it slow.
Oh. This is gonna be so treacherous for Bruce.
He just got to the steepest part. So he's putting on a harness,
and Mark is gonna maybe put him on belay.
It's like, in a way, it's kind of easy,
but in a way, it's... if you fell, you would possibly die, so...
- The Akawaios built this rickety ladder.
- Going one at a time.
- Yeah, they're big steps.
- Yeah, I see that.
That's a problem for me, is, uh... is bending my knees.
Yes, I can see what I'm doing.
Let's see here.
- Awesome, Bruce.
We're almost there.
You're a trooper.
- Hey.
Dude, that was an... that was an incredible effort.
-Now, you just gotta slip and slide... -We made it.
...through the mud for about ten more minutes.
Oh, mud I can do.
- There's a bit of misery and there's some suffering,
but the payout, it's stuff that completely blows your mind.
-Oh. I love it!
I can't wait to get in that water.
-- Welcome to Double Drop! -Hot dog.
- That was a... a really big moment for Bruce.
I know it's one of his favorite places on Earth.
And I know it was part of his dream just to get there.
- This is my Shangri-la!
It's...
the most wild, pristine...
remote, beautiful place I've been on the planet.
I can't believe I was able to return...
one last time.
- It was an awesome moment, but at the same time,
we were getting deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere,
and getting, you know, committed to a scary degree.
I was looking at the approach and thinking,
"How in the world are we gonna get Bruce through this terrain?"
Oh, my God.
- Mark, what have we got?
- There's Wei-Assipu.
- That looks... gnarly.
-Like, climbing that is not gonna be easy.
Especially not bringing an 80-year-old up it.
All the porters are helping Bruce
to get all the frogs, lizards, snakes, spiders.
-Uh. It's madness in camp.
- Oh. You got a big tarantula.
The goliath spider, the largest spider in the world.
In this particular part of the world,
the original inventory of the animals and plants here has not been completed.
-This snake eats snails.
And now, we're starting to find that as we discover more and more species,
it's becoming a more and more important biodiversity hotspot.
The final piece of the puzzle
is discovering what lives up on the tepui walls.
It's such an extreme place to get to.
Scientists have simply not been able to explore it.
- So, I've been promising Bruce that he's gonna get up the wall,
but I don't really know how it's going to happen yet.
I mean, it's probably gonna involve
some hybrid combination of techniques and strategies. But at this point,
the challenge is trekking through the jungle as an 80-year-old.
After we saw how bad Bruce got beaten up, Alex, Fuco, and I
were already like, "Wow."
-- And it became apparent
that it was going to take him a lot longer than we had anticipated
to get to the base of the wall.
What we're going to do, I think is we're going to halve the distance
that we were going to be covering each day.
So, that does mean that the approach is gonna take twice as long.
But, no, it means that Bruce can do half the distance,
but maybe we still do full distance for some of it
to make sure that the weight of the wall...
I mean, we can divide and conquer a little bit.
Yeah, we have to... we have to...
That's what we should talk about at dinner.
-Yes, I guess. Yeah. -'Cause there's definitely a world
in which the gear and the climbing team sticks to the same schedule.
Bruce takes whatever pace he needs, and it all works out fine.
My biggest fear would be that my age and my physical ability might deter
or might somehow slow up the expedition. That bothers me, worries me a lot.
The one thing that we could do is, we move forward
with the porters, you know, with the line cutters.
And we blaze the trail
to the base of the cliff while Bruce stays and does his stuff
-at Double Drop. -- Hmm.
Then the trail is in, and then either we double back,
maybe to spend some time with him,
-or we just start working on the climb. -- But...
-And he's catching up. -- It makes sense.
I think half-camps make sense, at least for, you know, the majority of the team.
Um, you know, 'cause safety I think is the...
-- For sure. -...really has to be a priority.
- I'm for whatever you guys wanna do. I'm not pushing for anything.
I mean, I'm okay with doing a little, single thing,
'cause I like to be out a little, out in the woods all alone,
and I've done that for years and years. But I'm 80, almost 80, you know?
Yesterday, I had several potential bone-breaking falls.
-And... -We need to reduce that down to nil.
-- Yeah. Yeah. -And that's...
It seems like we all agree that we're gonna split legs,
you're gonna pace yourself. It's gonna be great.
-- That's it. -- So, we have a plan
for the next couple of days.
-- Cool. Let's go to bed. -- Sure.
-Yep. -You gotta get to sleep.
We have another big day tomorrow.
-Okay. -Let's wrap it up.
- The kind of research I do, you could call it alpha level science.
I'm going out in nature, and I'm looking to see what I can find there.
It'll be a real delightful surprise
if we were to find something new to science on a cliff.
I mean, I couldn't ask for better than Mark and Alex Honnold
to try to get me up that wall.
-See you, boys.
-- All right. -All right, we'll see you up there.
-- Oh, yeah. Here we go. -- Today's the day
when we are hopefully getting to the wall, at long last.
Total unknown. No one has ever been up there.
Today's a really big, important day for the expedition.
The Amerindians are specialists of the jungle.
- They're just good at moving through the terrain.
And then at the other end of the spectrum, you have our whole team,
and we don't even know how to hike through the jungle.
I can't orienteer in the jungle at all. I don't know where we're going.
They've got a plan and let's just let them, uh, execute their vision.
You guys see that orange wall right there?
Yeah.
-On the left. -On the left.
-Yeah. -- That's where we're trying to get.
- Okay.
-You guys wanna see the ridge?
-- Look at that thing go! -- Goodbye, drone.
- We saw the wall from the trail,
and we started planning where we could climb.
Think I can go lower, too.
Yeah, this is... this is the ridge wood turning around.
-- Mm-hmm. -And it's over this side,
to the right side, it's straight down and over the side.
- Better to cut down and cut more in front of Bruce.
- It's fricking tall, dude.
Well, look at all the veg along to the right of the orange face.
-You see that with the sun now? -- Well, see... that's the shelf
that we were talking about. Maybe there's a traverse.
-You could just sort of see it. -- Yeah.
- When we saw the features that we were trying to recognize,
we pretty much knew where to go.
-Success!
- You look out to the distance and it's like a whole little island,
but getting to the wall is actually incredibly complicated.
- It's like if you imagine just the thickest, like, deep, deep,
like, peat moss or something.
- Watch out for holes.
You're balancing on this skinny little log,
and if you slip on this, you're falling down into this deep crevasse.
I don't know how we're gonna get Bruce up through this.
- It's pretty crazy right there.
-- Just simply the most treacherous...
...stuff that I've ever had to move through.
-- So, this will require more...
more than a chainsaw for making it easy for Bruce.
-Or a helicopter. -- Yeah.
- All of a sudden, the jungle opens up,
and this wall of rock appears.
Holy...
-Dude, this is so sick! -- This is insane.
- It was crazy. It was crazy,
but, uh, here we are, deep in the jungle, so, I guess,
at this point, I guess, we're actually gonna climb the wall.
After what we just went through today, it's kind of impossible for me to...
to picture Bruce coming up that.
That was beyond anything that I've ever done.
So, yeah. So, that's a problem.
Oh, my gosh!
Well, this definitely, today... was, uh...
...right up there with the most strenuous day
because I was going uphill all day.
Yeah. I'm worried, Bruce. It's my gut feeling that...
if we push on, we're risking your life.
Oh, boy.
Can we wait to see what Mark says?
Absolutely, you know, I think this will need to be a team decision.
-But my opinion is that... -Well, yours is...
-That this is... -...you're the medical one.
...not worth risking your life for.
-And that we're really...
...going into a territory that...
has hazards that we can't mitigate.
- Mark, Mark.
Hey, Bruce, great to hear your voice, man. How you doing? You sound a little beat.
- I need to hear from you, but,
let's see what your point of view is about me coming up there. Over.
Yeah, so, the terrain, um, in between us and you
is... is just way too, too serious, and, um...
...too dangerous really, I think...
for... for us to feel good about you moving up through it.
We're just worried, you know, that... that... that you get hurt.
There'd be no real way for us to evacuate you. Over.
- I understand. I'm not happy about it,
but the, uh, success of the expedition
depends on me and everybody else not getting terribly injured.
You guys can continue the elevational transect.
So, anything you guys obtain, and Fuco especially,
who knows the herpetofauna pretty well, if you can grab it and bag it for me.
And when you get back down here,
we will have completed the entire transect.
I will send a drawing of a species of Stefania up there
that is new to science, and you're very likely to get.
So, anything and everything that you guys do
while you're on the wall and on the summit
will benefit our expedition greatly, even if I'm not up there myself.
Okay, Bruce. I'm gonna do my best to try to find the... the lucky Stefania.
- Fantastic, Fuco. I know if anybody can do it, it'll be you.
Over and out.
I've already found several new species of frogs in the genus Stefania
at the base of the tepui.
My theory is that we should discover a new species of Stefania
that evolved on the top of the tepui.
I... ...felt like I was letting the team down.
Because I wanted to do it myself, but I respected their...
their advice.
Hopefully, to the likelihood of me getting home alive.
Oh, my God. Holy...
The clouds just lifted out for the first time in forever.
Rainbow! Rainbow!
-Rainbow! Rainbow!
God, this kinda makes it all worthwhile.
-- You pumped to see some blue? -Best view so far.
- Rainbows!
This is absolutely breathtaking.
The most dramatic scene I... I think I've ever witnessed in the mountains.
Packing for the wall. We're finally launching.
-Fuco, that just came up with the porters. -Let me take a look.
Is that... Oh, that's the sketch for the frog we're looking for?
Yep.
-Oh, wow. -- Wow, that's so cool.
This is the frog that Bruce wants us to look for up on the wall.
-- Mm-hmm. -- New species of Stefania...
-Sounds like a... -...from the summit of Wei-Assipu.
I do have some degree of expertise in... in the field of biology.
So, I feel the responsibility... to be an eye for Bruce on the wall.
We're gonna start the route.
Time to don the helmet.
Harness on. Get racked up. Yeah, it's awesome.
- Okay. Climbing.
- On the way.
- This cliff has never been climbed.
So, the plan is to work our way up the rock, and find the route as we go.
After about 800 feet, there's a ledge where we can hopefully set up camp.
From there, we'll traverse the ledge all the way to the summit plateau,
searching for frogs and other creatures all along the way.
- A little bit higher up, there's a nice horizontal crack
where you might just get a bomber pin.
Let me know if you've come across anything sketchy.
- Yep. This is actually a little sketchy.
-- Okay.
-This is all loose here. -- Yeah. It seems like it.
- Yeah. It's crazy, like, how the rock is both, like,
so bad and so good in some ways.
- You have to be careful.
- On a... on a first ascent, there's going to be loose rocks.
- A lot of stuff like that going on, you know?
- That's probably the biggest hazard that you face when you're, you know,
pioneering a new route.
I mean, we're talking things that can be huge,
like pieces of rock the size of a school bus.
You know, something like that comes off
when you're climbing could definitely kill you.
Just don't know what you can trust.
-Watch me good, Fuco. -- Yep, got you.
- Okay!
- Yeah.
-Yeah!
-That's hard. -- It was.
First patch. ...So cold. Whoo!
Nice job!
- Wow. So, did they say where they're going up?
Right... right up the middle there, I guess.
I've seen this scene from the air in satellite photos.
But to actually be here
is more breathtaking than any aerial shot could ever be.
It's really exciting to me that the cliff itself has ledges,
and other places, cracks, and fissures
where vegetation grows. And those are very likely spots
where some of the animals I'm interested in could live.
And if Fuco, and Mark, and Alex are able to find any animals on the cliff,
like frogs or lizards, it'll be a really great discovery.
Nobody's ever... ever done any work on the cliff, as you can see why.
- As disappointed as I am
that I won't be able to personally continue the transect
to the summit of Wei-Assipu, I'm very happy
that colleagues are doing that for me.
And, uh, I'm going to be able to spend a week in this paradise
right here by myself,
looking at all those amazing organisms that occur in this site.
And here I am situated for maybe a week to be able to go out at night and look at,
and study, and photograph, uh, creatures I love.
Our search zone extends from my jungle camp
to the top of the tepui.
This entire area is full of undiscovered species.
And that little frog, right there, I've never seen anything like it.
So, here we got another new species.
- It's so cool.
-- Yeah. -- Congrats.
- This will help add
to the biodiversity inventory we're making of the area,
and, uh, could aid in its conservation ultimately.
Pretty cool. A field biologist's dream.
-- How does it look? -- Pretty wild!
- One of the most challenging things in climbing, in general,
is fear of the unknown.
And basically, keeping your mind under control
as you encounter difficulties.
And first ascents are basically an amplified version of that experience,
because when you're doing a first ascent, you really don't know what's there,
could be anything above you. It's like, who knows what's gonna happen?
We are up here, belaying Mark on what might wind up
being one of the cruxes of this route. He uh... he's leading this big roof.
- A roof is an overhang that juts out from the cliff face.
This one is about 200 feet up the route, and there's really no easy way around it.
-Watch me. -- Watching you.
- The roof is really, uh, not looking good.
It's... it's... it's kind of extreme.
I'm trying to think what you would do if you were here.
But I'm not really sure.
Okay, well, you gotta do what you think is best, but...
Well, the main thing is where you think you can penetrate the roof, you know?
- There's a crack going out the roof, but it's wicked thin,
kind of like barely there, and that's where we want to be,
is over there. You should probably come up and have a look.
- Okay. I mean, yeah, that's fine with me.
- Alex took the rope.
And then the next thing we know, he's, like, just hanging...
...like a sloth.
And he just... We're like, "Oh! I guess, he's going for it."
- All right, Mark. Here we go. This is the crux.
- Okay, I got ya!
-- Nice, Alex! -- Yeah!
- He just totally
did one of the most impressive pieces of climbing
that I've ever seen actually just on-site, first ascent,
dangling out a roof at a really high degree of difficulty.
And it ended up being
really, the key to the whole route, getting out this giant roof,
and, um, put us in the perfect position, you know, to continue on from there.
Yeah, dude. Nice work!
Now, where the... do I go?
- Just because you have a rope and equipment
doesn't mean that you're actually safe. You know, you are way out there,
you are on a remote wall in the far corners of Guyana.
If you injure yourself, you know,
there's no real way that you're going to be rescued or helped.
How is it down there, Fuco?
- ...Whoa!
-- Did something rip?
- Did you pull gear out or you just fall off?
-- Just fell off. -- Oh, yeah. Cool.
- Feels slippery. Whoo!
- You have to make sure that things are totally safe.
This is a, you know, a scary position to be climbing in.
And you feel like it's a scene from Cliffhanger or something.
-- Yeah, Fuco! -- Whoo!
-- Campeador.
-- Wow, look at what Alex did.
- Can't believe how overhanging this... is.
-- You're like... -Quite overhanging.
...30 to 40 feet out from the wall.
- From here, it's still another 600 feet of sheer rock
to reach a ledge where we can set up camp for the night.
This expedition, unfortunately... this is probably my last...
trip involving...
you know, jungle hiking.
I like to walk along...
slowly... uh, looking at the moss,
looking... I'll find an insect, I'll see an animal I wouldn't have seen
if I was cruising along fast.
And sure enough, just a minute ago, this little guy hopped up.
It's a toad. Toads are frogs, not all frogs are toads.
What's not to love?
This is as pristine as it gets.
Uh, only our feet have been here that I'm aware of. It's wild, and remote,
and beautiful can... as can be.
I just wanna be quiet and love it.
Let it sink in.
I'll be leaving the planet...
...sometime.
And I'll miss it.
I'm about to head into the unknown here. We're a bit in a cloud,
so everything's a little wet, which is unfortunate,
and makes it obviously a little harder for climbing,
because all the holds are wet.
But, um, we're just gonna keep going, and see how things play out.
That was, like, the hardest crimp today.
- Nice, Alex!
- Yep. Wanna make sure that it feels like a pleasure cruise up here.
-Fuco and I at the belay here.
Fuco's belaying Mark, who... let's see. Can we see him below here?
Oh, yeah, there he is.
He's still climbing up out of the crazy clouds.
I guess, this is why they call it a cloud forest.
The wall above us looks...
Well, we'll just see. It looks very interesting.
- Oh, my God. It's full-on, literally Jenga.
Rock!
-It's a little scary, Fuco. -- Yeah, I know.
There was this lip that I had to turn to get up to the ledge,
and almost every single hold was removable.
And the thing that was so challenging and scary for me
was that I had to remove it all without falling off.
Okay, Fuco, I'm questing on.
Whoo! ...Yeah!
This is the exit to my pitch.
-- What's up? -- That was scary.
All right. We... did it. We're on the ledge.
One, two, three! Pull.
- Okay, underneath that.
Three!
- It's getting dark on us, and we're still hauling giant bags.
-It's so much stuff. -One, two, three!
Now, it's going to get interesting from the biology perspective
because I'm be... I'm gonna be looking for frogs.
- We're erecting our wall camp.
Basically, we're just trying to settle into our new home,
up toward the top of the cliff.
So, the plan for tomorrow, we're gonna quest off in this traverse,
across this thing, and try to get to the summit,
and it's... I guarantee that it's gonna be a... a wild adventure.
Ex... exploration, that's what it's gonna be tomorrow.
Exploration in the name of science. On behalf of Dr. Bruce Means,
we've gotta try to find the frog. It's not gonna be easy.
- We've been checking in from the expedition with Michael Strahan
from Good Morning America.
Giving updates via satphone
of the progress of the expedition and what we're doing.
It's pretty cool to be able to share this experience
with the world as it happens.
- Hey, Alex. How you doing, man? How is it going out there?
Hey, it's going great. We've successfully climbed a portion of this giant tepui.
We've made this large ledge system which will connect to the actual summit.
And so, things are going great.
- I heard the unfortunate news about Bruce.
So, what happened? And most of all, is he okay?
He has remained in one of the mid camps on the approach to the wall.
We do have radio communications with the camp that he's in.
- Roger. I'm here.
I'm as good as can... good can be.
We're finding all kinds of wonderful, exciting, and exotic new species...
...that adds to the world's biodiversity
but also brings attention to this area
as being a significant biodiversity hotspot.
So, it's a team effort. Uh, it's not over yet.
The search continues, and I am ecstatic. Over.
All of this sounds absolutely incredible.
But, you guys, you stay safe on the final push to the top, okay?
We are... we're rooting for you guys.
- At the elevations where the vegetation occurs,
it's very wet,
and prime habitat for all kinds of frogs and other animals.
To find a vertebrate animal that's endemic to the cliffs themselves
would be outstanding, would be a wonderful find.
- This looks dangerous.
...I'm gonna go up through this little tunnel here. Get along.
I think the key is gonna be to stay near the base of the cliff.
Holy creepy crawly.
Tarantula city.
There was spots where it was just impenetrable thickets like this,
where you're just, like, tearing your way through.
Then eventually, we popped out onto the Wei-Assipu summit plateau.
- Oh, my God.
- This is freaking crazy-looking.
Look at that tree right there, that's like full-on Dr. Seuss.
Because Bruce couldn't make it up, it was our job on the summit
to help him complete his life's work by searching for new species of frogs.
We're up on the plateau. We're not on the highest point,
but we've basically made it to the top.
Keep your eyes out.
We're definitely, like, in froggy terrain.
This is where now we really need the weather to be good,
because now we have no shelter,
and we're out in the open, and, of course...
the clouds just come up over the side of the tepui.
And then we're back into the fog.
We can't see anything, and it starts raining.
- No.
- Are you cold? Come sit right here, Fuco.
- I was almost hypothermic. I had to crawl with Mark
inside a poncho, beneath the rock.
- Got two guys under one poncho in this space.
Wanna get... trying to stay warm on the summit here.
- Yeah, this isn't exactly the summit glory we were hoping for.
And we haven't been able to find the frog, and I'm soaked to the bone.
-Looking for frogs.
Sort of like finding a needle in a haystack.
Bruce seems to find them, no problem, but... ...it's not that easy.
Sounds like it's in the trees up here.
-Maybe. -- Yeah.
I had an idea that we... we should look mostly on the bromeliads,
which is the perfect environment for a frog to... to hide.
But I couldn't find it.
-- Oh! I... Holy... -- What's that?
- Creatures!
-- What kind? -- Tadpoles!
-- Oh, you got one. -- I got one.
Oh, my God. I found a tadpole.
I mean, obviously, that's a sure sign that there's frogs around here.
-- Hey, Bruce. It's Mark. Do you copy?
Hey, Mark. Where art thou? Have you made it? Over.
- We are indeed up on the top. We're on the plateau.
We found a puddle that was just absolutely filled with tadpoles.
- Fantastic.
I could not be more excited. It'll be interesting to see what you got.
If you can grab it and bag it for me and when you get back down here,
we will have completed the entire transect.
Be safe. Over and out.
- Okay, sounds good.
We'll check back in with you soon. Okay? Over and out.
The goal was to get Bruce up to the top of the cliff.
It didn't go, you know, perfectly according to plan.
Um. But we did the climb.
A first ascent up a tepui that has never been climbed before.
- We got to the top, we completed the elevational transect,
and we found the tadpoles to bring down to Bruce which might be a new species.
That's what we came here for.
And that's really important to me,
because I have seen what happens in other places out here,
the logging and the mining.
And I think if people know about this place and how magical it is,
they'll protect it.
-Hey, guys. Hey. -- Hey!
-Hey. -Hey!
-Good to see you. High five. -How you doing, bud?
-Oh. Don't get too dirty. I'm so wet.
- Hey, dude.
-There you are. -How are you, bud?
-- Oh, my God. -- I'm pretty famished, so...
You look like you've lost about 20 pounds.
-Hey, Bruce! -Fuco!
-I think we captured it.
-Wow. Let's see what you got. -So good to see you, man.
- Likewise.
This expedition's elevational transect has been hugely successful.
We have the entire transect now, and this part of it that, from the summit,
all the way down to Double Drop, is the part we needed to establish.
And, boy, did we do that in spades. So, I wish I'd been up there with you.
That was something I had deep in my heart.
However, you did it, and you did it for us.
- Bruce has an infectious passion for biology.
I feel like we did something that matters.
To collect new species, to study them, to take DNA samples,
and to basically see something that no one has ever seen before.
You know, I mean, science has brought us a long ways, but, I mean,
we're still barely scratching the surface of what we understand in this world.
- The tepuis are special places on the planet.
And they're part of my life, my love, my career.
And so, this trip is one of the great gifts to me.
And I'd love to do more.
But if I don't get to do it, this will be a highlight of my life.