Date: 30.01.2015
Place: Matheran Louisa Pinnacle
Team: Ajay, Amol, Abhishek, Raj, Rahool, Vinay, Vishvesh, Pallavi, Pratik, Sai.
“Life is a roller coaster ride”, is what I felt on my first ever climb. It was on Friday the 30th of Jan 2015 group of 10 climbers (CLIFFHANGERS) headed to Matheran from Dombivili (Out of the lot I was the only novice climber). All of us gathered at Dombivili. Climbing experts already had equipment & sacks ready at the place, which got moved to car’s roof rack. We cruised to Matheran (Courtesy Ajay Dada’s fully loaded luxurious high segment Xylo).
Reached Matheran, unloaded the vehicle and started trekking towards the pinnacle at around half past 12 in the morning. (After seeing off Ajay dada , Rahool, & Xylo). It was one and half to two hours trek with some break points and we visited a temple on the way as well.
After reaching the point few experts examined to set up a base camp, plan was made and then all of us gathered for dinner (courtesy Pratik Patil for bhakri and achar) followed by a long nap lasting from 4 till 7 in the morning.
After few hours of rest team was back to the business. Different tasks were delegated to small teams, few went to fetch water, and others settled the equipment, remaining made anchoring point. We were all set to go.
A big tree is there for anchoring. A 200ft rope was used to rappel down from anchoring point to base point. There is a choke stone between Matheran and Louisa pinnacle with exposure on either side of 150ft. Only 3 can stand on this choke stone.
At first one of our members rappelled down and stationed himself at the choke stone point to guide others. Others started rappelling approx. 180ft down to choke stone point. Rappelling till 150 feet is of beginners' level, but there is a 30ft rappel of difficult level towards the choke stone. (Please refer the below figure : took off the net). The climbing task initiated from this point. There are base bolts available at the start of the climbing. Initial moves to reach these bolts are difficult. There is a patch on the right side (when you are facing towards pinnacle) from where one can start. After this point, two more bolts are available at approx. 20 feet. There is a ledge in between where you can take rest. There is a kind of overhang toward the final climb move.
Pratik initiated the climbing task and reached the summit. On summit there were 3 pegs. He installed proper set up for others to climb and assisted. Each of us started rappelling down in order, then climb Louisa pinnacle, respectively from choke stone. All of us made it to the summit successfully.
On top there was an idol of Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj. All posed for a perfect picture with the idol. Then, rappelled down to choke stone base camp and from there climbed using jumar tool to starting point.
It was pack up time and clock was ticking. We quickly packed & pulled up our sacks and sat for lunch to finish off remaining bhakri. There was an uninvited guest to the lunch table. It was a monkey, trying to steal a bhakri under Amol’s nose but did not succeed and got a punch on the face instead. Clicking time is the best part of any journey, so clicked pics from Canon (courtesy Pallavi) of the team.
Finally started descending down the trek path and guess what, Ajay dada was back again to our rescue with his darling M&M Xylo with voice command*. Everyone got into it and it brought us at dombivili.
Trust, teamwork, self – confidence, So much can be learned through climbing.
It was all together a great learning experience for me.
Thank you to each of the team members for welcoming me into this group.
Behind the camera: Vishvesh Mahajan, Raj Bakre, Amol Padhye