Prologue: This blog was written in the real time during the
journey.
Date: 23rd February
2014
Time: 2:20 PM
This is the most inexplicable blog post that I have ever written.
I am sitting in the shade of a huge rock face half way down a huge hill 65 kms
from Bangalore on the Kanakapura Road NH 209. Three local people, the only ones
to be seen in miles, have spotted me and are trying to wave at me. I think,
they think that I am stuck on the hill and want help. But they don’t know what
I am feeling. Only if I could tell them that I am feeling over the top. That’s
when I decided to write this blog. And yes, I always keep pen and paper with me
on these wild trips. Don’t know when inspiration may strike. Anyways, I wave
back at them but they don’t leave. So, I have to change my place and sit
somewhere where there is some shade and the place is not exposed.
Now that they have left, I am just thinking how come I am here in
a desolate place far away from civilization. No one is visible for miles.
That’s why I have to write this and I have to write it now. Also, I could use
some rest while I use some ink.
So, yesterday was a bad day. Returned home late at around 10:30
PM. I was in indifferent mood and was thinking how to make myself feel better.
That’s when I decided to do a solo trek after first successful solo trek that I
had done three weeks back. But there has been huge differences between these
two solo treks. First one was on Skandagiri, 70 kms on the other side of
Bangalore. Although Skandagiri is higher, it was no match to the one I have
done today.
Skandagiri is a popular, populous but a beaten trek. It has well
laid out path on which one can find a lot of traffic if it’s peak time. Though
I was alone there too in the afternoon with some cameo appearances. And yes,
there I cooked my lunch – Maggi. The real adventure happened at the end of trek
when I took an unknown path on my way down and after a lot of exploration and
route finding, I did find an alternative route. There might be some people out
of all those who have done this trek who would have discovered this route but
that number must be less than 0.1 %. Although that was wonderful experience but
that was nothing compared to the experience that I already have had today and
it is just 50 % complete.
After breaking my fast at Kanakapura, when I started my FZ, I had
no destination in mind. I just kept going. After 4 kms, hills started emerging
both side of the road. Hills on the right were closer. I left the first one but
got seduced by the second. Parking bike was a problem but found out a clearing
just in front of the hill which had three makeshift huts. It seemed some kind
of construction site. I parked my FZ in the shade of the hut but lo, I have
another problem. I don’t have a helmet locker in my bike. I had been planning
to buy it from a long time but I was too lazy. My laziness came to bite me
today in my ass. After thinking for a while, I headed back to Kanakapura. After
a lot of searching, I found a shop. Came back to same spot again, parked my FZ
and I was at it again.
It’s already 11:30 AM. Sun is out in its full might. I have no
knowledge about this mountain (Ok, it’s a hill but I will call it mountain for
the sake of inflating my personal achievement and of course, it gives that
feel). But I am high on spirits. I start walking towards the mountain but only
after 5 minutes of walking, there is something that can’t wait. It’s nature’s
call. I have only 2 litres of water with me but nature’s call is, what it is.
And luckily I find an empty bottle. I am already far away from the road. I find
a suitable place hidden by a huge rock. It feels heavens to answer nature’s
call out in open in lap of nature. Believe me, it does and I am stating that
from my cumulative experiences of treks.
So, refreshed and reinvigorated, I start again. Some of the rocks
are really simple to climb. After 10 minutes of walking and climbing through
some bushes and shrubs, I reach a small cave. I rest there for a while, eat
some biscuits and snacks that I have and start again. Firstly there are small
rocks which are grey and black in colour. After another 10 minutes of walking,
huge rocks start to appear. I climb up a couple of them and then, I have to
stop at a place to decide which way to go. There is no way but I can go either
left which should lead to the stiffer southern face or can go right which
should be gentler slope. I look at the mountain and start left. If there is no
route to top I have to find one.
Southern face looks exciting and sometime by its looks, give me a
feel of Machapuchhare which is situated in Nepal and a very popular trek.
Climbing up the big rocks with regularity, I am half way up in no time. There’s
a vent between two the southern and eastern face of the mountain. I can go up
on bare face or I can take the vent. I decide to take the vent. After climbing
for a while, I reach an open somewhat horizontal place. I take a pit stop and
look towards the road. I am already up 70 % of the mountain. And suddenly, a
thought strikes me what would a person think if someone sees me solo climbing
alone from the road. I am really exposed out there. Next moment, I reason it
out in my mind. At the most he would think I am crazy but what difference would
it make. None. I start climbing again at a frantic pace and in no time reach
within 90 % of the mountain. Now, above me there’s a stiff slope of 70 degrees
the same that was visible from road and which gave it a look of Machapuchhare.
It was looking a lot like Savandurga climb. Savandurga is the largest monolith
in Asia and a very popular trekking destination around Bangalore.
I sit down and start pondering over whether to go up or to abandon
the climb. Then I look down the road and it’s an amazing view and all my
anxieties melt away. Then, I look up towards the peak and decide to go up. As
it is very stiff, I am on my fours. Slowly and steadily, I climb up to within
50m of the summit. If someone would have seen me climbing at that time, he
would have thought that I am going for suicide. But now, for the first time,
fear strikes me because it is very steep and it’s slippery. I think of going
back But it’s my inner self and my ego that’s egging me to go on. I climb
another 20m very slowly. Now my backpack feels heavy and suddenly I feel like I
am losing out on the balance because of the backpack. And that’s it for me. I
decide to go down immediately at that point of time. My ego can’t be larger
than mountain’s ego. Fritz Weissner would have felt the same when he had to
abandon his climb of K2 in 1939 much before it was finally climbed. He had
reached within striking distance of the summit when his fellow sherpa refused
to go any further that day and he had to go down. Next day the weather closed
in and he never climbed K2 again.
So, now I have to go down. But how, especially with this backpack
? I have no rope to lower it down. Hence I just slide it down gently.
Thankfully it stops where I intended it to stop. Then I climb down that stiff
face. Picking up my backpack, I go down and down till I reach half way down
safely. It’s the same place where I had taken left. I am still thinking of the
peak, so I take right and start climbing again. It’s a little gentle slope but
full of dry grass and bushed. But nature has made my path smoother by burning
down dry grass all over, a la Australian forest fire, but on a much smaller
scale. Going up and sideways, I reach a place where there are a lot of shrubs.
I see a huge rock and decide to reach there. But reaching that rock I had to go
through a lot thorny bushes and shrubs. My skin feels allergic. I don’t know
what it has come in contact with but it is itching very badly. I pull out
my water bottle, see the amount of water left and pour some down both my hands.
After at least 10 minutes of rubbing and scratching, it feels somewhat normal.
I look around and feel trapped. Behind me is a huge vertical rock.
I am sitting in the shade of a very big thorny bush which is covering 90 % of
the rock I am sitting on. Other side has two huge rocks with vertical edge. The
only way seems down through the same bushes and I fright what would happen to
my skin now. But I don’t want to go down. There is one way which seems
feasible. If I can go around the bush on the edge of the rock at least I can
see if there’s a way or not. But that would mean going around the edge of the
cliff. It’s a dilemma to take the backpack or not.
Finally I decide to leave the backpack there itself and go alone
around the edge. Once I start sliding and crawling, I reach the other side of
bush. I find a vent. Climbing up the vent, I see a route to the top and I feel
ecstatic. Though it is still stiff climb of about 60 degrees but it’s
manageable. Now there’s another dilemma whether to go back for the backpack or
not in case there’s an alternative way down the summit. I go along on the top
without backpack. It’s good climb because rocks are rough. So it’s easy to find
the spot to hold on to and besides it has much better friction. I run to the
summit and it was thrilling. I look around the top and on one side there’s a
very gradual slope which could be my way down the mountain. So, I go back fetch
my backpack and come to summit again. I walk around the summit and then I sit
down on a rock just to feel the air and let this feeling sink in. I don’t know
the name of the summit. There must be something that the locales would call but
I decide to name it personally. By the end of the day, I have to find a
suitable name for the summit.
Oh !!! it’s 4:15 PM and I have got very late writing this blog. I
will have to scram but I will follow this up in the next blog.
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