Some of the text below was scribbled during the climb and some later. So the tense in which it is now apparent can be a little confusin at times. I have referred to people by their initials. S sir is Sachin Gaikwad,s sir is Sagar sir, Mr.P is Pawar sir and Mr.R is Saste sir. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
22 nd Jan 2010, Day 1: Almost 5 years after the rock climbing bug bit me and I started ogling at the pictures of the gear-clad climber hanging onto impossible overhangs, I am all set for my first ever technical climb.
I’ll be climbing the ‘Lingana’ pinnacle which stands beside Raigad fort. It’s quite a popular climb among hard core Sahyadri trekkers. The climb doesn’t involve many rock pathces. It’s mostly scree and loose rock. You can get an idea about the route from the photos in this post.
There are 5 of us (including the cook) from Pune who are going a day ahead as the ‘technical team’. Day after tomorrow, a group of 9 other hikers will join us.So our task is to set up fixed ropes in order to ensure a safe climb for everyone.
At the moment, we are waiting for our ration, stoves and suchlike to reach the departure point.
9 p.m: The wagonR has arrived and the luggage space is loaded with ropes, rucksacks and ration boxes. In the front seat, I have made myself comfortable between a stove kit and 2 more bags. I have no idea how the three people in the back are faring. Mostly because i can’t see their faces hidden behind even moreluggage stuffed in the car. This is definitely not going to be an alpine style climb!
12.30 in the night: After getting lost for a while, finally reached Varoti, the road head(base village). Our other two members from Baramati had already made the village school their home. In no time, all of us were inside our sleeping bags and snoring away(the men, not me for sure!). I had a sound sleep for 5 hours.
23rd Jan, 8.00 am: 7 of us have left Varoti and are on our way to another village called Mohri. Mohri is enroute to the Lingana pinnacle.
- Varoti village
The three-hour trek to Mohri felt a bit tiring because of the load on the back and the scorching heat. But the terrain was good. It wasn’t steep. We had to climb only two ridges. After a while, the route opens onto a plateau and on the backside(east), you start seeing Torna(Budhla Machi and Balekilla) and Rajgad.
Further ahead, the vista opens on both sides. On the left(north), eyes are treated to the sight of Raigad and just beside it, you can see the upper part of Lingana pinnacle.
We took a short break at Mohri around 11:30 a.m. and then headed towards the narrow gulley(naal) that would lead us to the base of the pinnacle.
The gulley was kinda treacherous. It wasn’t a difficult scramble downhill. But the loads on our backs seriously slowed us down. Sagar sir and Ravi sir were holding rope coil and some hardware in their hands, which made things harder for them. We went down for around 150 feet. The scramble down and the traverse following it were completed by 2 pm. The sun was HOT. For the first time, I felt the heat. Somehow, I was shivering for a good 10 minutes (wasn’t wearing a cap) during the traverse.
We deposited the luggage at the base of the pinnacle (which, in geographical terms, can be called a pass i.e.khind) and rested for half an hour. We hadn’t had anything to eat after the early morning shira breakfast. Mr.R was supposed to bring packed lunches for us from Mohri by around 3 pm. But looking at the terrain we had just crossed, it looked like a distant prospect. We were quite sure the person bringing the food would give up in between. The 2 litres of water that everyone was carrying was about to finish up. We had planned to be able to climb the pinnacle till around halfway where we would find the water cistern and get our bottles filled. But we had wrongly estimated the time it’d take to reach the base itself. So 2 pm was a pretty late start for the climb, especially because S sir’s rules dictated that we would turn around from whatever point we had reached sharp at 4pm, to avoid getting caught in the dark.
s sir and I put on the harness. He was going to lead and I was going as the 2nd climber, as the belayer. Agile climber that he is, s sir climbed first two pitches in no time. I too followed without any trouble. The ground wasn’t difficult to scramble. Rope was needed only for the safety(as a matter of fact, two climbers from Belapur climbed 3/4th of the pinnacle without a rope a few days after us. Risky business, but I’m all admiration for them). There was rock patch at the end of the 1st pitch. I kept on passing the rope through runners.
Trouble started after the second pitch and I was wholly responsible for it. I hadn’t paid much attention to an important factor in climbing – Rope Management. I reached a runner and all I had to do was to pass a clove hitch knot through the carabiner. But here, I went blank there. The static rope behind me, the rope on which s sir was belaying me from above, my self-anchor and a loose strap from my harness had all got entangled and I couldn’t figure out quickly what had happened. I just stood there idly. I tried to clear the mesh. I wasn’t panicking. But i just couldn’t figure out which rope was coming from where and where it was going. By the time I started making some sense out of the ropes, I had almost forgotten what I had to do with them. S sir was shouting instructions at me. I irritated him a lot through my inaction.
Finally, finally, the problem got fixed and I moved ahead. s sir is the most patient of all the people I have ever met. Not once did he lose his temper. He just explained what had happened slowly and clearly. I was all apologies for wasting the team’s time and he kept reassuring me that such mistakes happen to all beginners. Same was S sir’s attitude after the climb was over.
We climbed a few more pitches. But thanks to my time-wasting performance, we hadn’t reached the planned destination (cave and the water cistern) by the time the hour hand had started pointing at 4 o’ clock. We were one pitch below it. But rules are rules and so we abseiled down from where we were. At 4:50 pm, we were back at base.
Thus we had the rope fixed for about 3/4th of the way up. We hadn’t managed to reach the water point. So now, we just had 2 litres of water among 7 of us and an evening & next day’s morning to go. Food had reached the base, thankfully. Mr.R had got on the wrong traverse path. Mr.P had rightly guessed that Mr.R would have difficulty reaching the destination. So while the two of us were climbing up, Mr.P had gone back the the way toward the gulley, had found Mr.R somewhere off-route had brought him back to the base.
We hogged the meal, had my mistakes explained by s and S sir and very soon, we were inside our sleeping bags. It was only 6 p.m!! The pass was going to be our place for the night stay. We were sitting there, almost among the grass and bushes, cliffs on both sides. Silence, dusk time, talks involving Maratha history and mysteries. I loved the atmosphere and was having a really good time. We kept on chatting until 9:30 pm. Then it was time to sleep off. Water scarcity was making its presence felt. But we tried to sleep. It was awesome – there was a bright moon but I could identify the usual constellations. My face was so near a bush that I would often slip off in it bush whenever I dozed off. I slept on and off through the night. P sir scared us a little by waking up at midnight and torching off around our camp because he though he heard ‘something’. We heard a feline call. Somebody said it was a leopard call. All these events made up for a spooky night stay. O simply loved it all.
24th Jan: We woke up, stuffed the sleeping bag inside its case and immediately put on the harness. There was nothing else to do since we didn’t have water to brush our teeth or wash our faces. Plus, we had to have the rope fixed till the top before the other 9 hikers reached the base.
Today, s sir was again the lead climber but S sir became the 2nd man. Me, Mr.p and Mr.R were to climb after these two. The two climbers ahead of us were fast and efficient. I had a jumar with me. But jumaring is a pain. The three of us just clipped onto the rope and went scrambling up. Rope was always there as a support and for safety.
We reached the water point. The water was cool and clear (below the dusty layer at the surface). We got freshened up and from that point on, we were told to jumar up by the climbers above. I jumared till the last rock patch, where I realized that climbing would be easier and more fun than jumaring. Plus, someway below this patch, I had seen a piton getting dislodged due to the jumaring jerk (not that i was unsafe – s sir had ensured the safety by hammering in one more piton above the dislodged one. Still, I had had a moment). So I left the jumar and just climbed the last rock with hands and feet and then there I was, on the summit! Well, not exactly on the summit.
There still remained a few feet of a plain walking up the top-most hump. But we didn’t have sufficient rope for it. Moreover, we had, by this time, started seeing the rest of the team traversing to the base. So we didn’t have sufficient time to bring up an extra rope and use it to go to the real summit. In any case, the real climbing part was dealt with, so we called it a day and I settled on the rock with s sir. We had ourselves self anchored.
Today, s sir was again the lead climber but S sir became the 2nd man. Me, Mr.p and Mr.R were to climb after these two. The two climbers ahead of us were fast and efficient. I had a jumar with me. But jumaring is a pain. The three of us just clipped onto the rope and went scrambling up. Rope was always there as a support and for safety.
We reached the water point. The water was cool and clear (below the dusty layer at the surface). We got freshened up and from that point on, we were told to jumar up by the climbers above. I jumared till the last rock patch, where I realized that climbing would be easier and more fun than jumaring. Plus, someway below this patch, I had seen a piton getting dislodged due to the jumaring jerk (not that i was unsafe – s sir had ensured the safety by hammering in one more piton above the dislodged one. Still, I had had a moment). So I left the jumar and just climbed the last rock with hands and feet and then there I was, on the summit! Well, not exactly on the summit.
There still remained a few feet of a plain walking up the top-most hump. But we didn’t have sufficient rope for it. Moreover, we had, by this time, started seeing the rest of the team traversing to the base. So we didn’t have sufficient time to bring up an extra rope and use it to go to the real summit. In any case, the real climbing part was dealt with, so we called it a day and I settled on the rock with s sir. We had ourselves self anchored.
It was just WOW! A family of long billed vultures was flying at our level. s sir pointed out their nest inside a small cave on the exactly opposite cliff. The sun was frying us but I was having a great time. Very soon, Mr.P and Mr.R also made it to the top. s sir and I sat like this for next 1.5 hours. Just taking in the scene. I was listening to tales of his earlier climbs. Full of adventures, accidents, of what climbing is, how theres no chance for a mistake. By this time, the 9 hikers had started their climb. Some of them were jumaring, others were just clipped on the rope.
I thoroughly enjoyed my long stay at the top. After that, the sun became unbearable and I started my descend. I kept on meeting familiar faces on the way down, including 8 year old Avani, the youngest in the group. Like previous times, she was strapped on to Suresh sir’s back while descending.
- Sachin sir and Avani
I was back at the base with all other 9 hikers by 5 pm. It was decided that 10 of us would leave for Mohri and the remaining team would take care of taking the rope off the route and that they would come later. We were told to be as fast as possible so as to avoid trekking at night. We left by 6 pm but took a wrong traverse. We were treading our path carefully because it had started getting dark and we had to be careful while hauling up and down little Avani. By the time we were done with the traverse and had reached the gulley, it was dark, we had switched on our torches sometime earlier. Climbing up the gulley consumed a lot of time because of the darkness, load, ensuring everyone was alright and stuff like that. Plus, we had to haul up the load separately whenever there was a boulder to climb. Still, it was fun. I liked the responsible role assigned to me. Shri and D sir were a big support..even though they were newbies, they were tough. Shri took a lot of care when it came to load transfers and Avani.
We came out in the open, on to the plateau at 9 pm. We were exhausted and hungry. We rested for some time in the cool air, the remaining team had caught up with us halfway up the gulley. So we started on our way back to Mohri. It was now a simple walk on the flatland. We reacehd Mohri by 10 pm. The rest of the night was spent in dinner, sorting of equipment and finally, a long awaited sleep. It was my second night in the open, under the stars. I could see the moon behind a hut. Some of us had a cozy stay inside a villager’s house. My north face sleeping bag was cozier!
Next day, all that remained was trekking back to Varoti, which we did in 1.5 hours. Back in the car, we started driving towards civilization.
To Wonder & Wander 
Leave a comment