Climbing

Kanteerava Stadium - Wall Climbing

A weekend planned to be spent in Bangalore ...... but then, it seems I am not capable of it!!!

July 8 -- Saturday -- Wall climbing at Kanteerava Stadium

It was actually nice, after a long gap of four months, to see how much of the Basic Mountaineering Course I remembered!! Having Kavitha, fresh out of the course there, helped too!! :-D .... We managed to climb the wall and get down- all in one piece!! Tarsh, Neeraj, Kavita, Jithu and myself did pretty well for ourselves and Sirish provided ulllllllltimate entertainment!!

Sirish was barely ten feet above the ground when his legs started to vibrate to the tune of 'Death' Metal in his head .... and so he wanted to get down to solid ground - but then, he did not want to trust the rope and get his feet off the wall!! It was hilarious!! I was belaying him and so I refused to let him 'climb' down - He either came down the normal way or he stayed up there!!! And so Sirish decided to stay up there!!! A passer-by was so amused by this spectacle that he decided to take a video of this!!!!!!!! ROTFL!!!!!!!

By the time Sirish reached the ground, we had laughed so much that we couldn't climb again!! :-)

Antargange

A famous pilgrim destination just four kms from Kolar town, 65 kms out of Bangalore is also famous for the rocks and cave formations amongst adventure enthusiasts. From Bangalore, head out on Old Madras Road through KR Puram and Hosakote to reach Kolar. Enter the city and take a left turn near the KSRTC bus stand to reach Antargange.

Friday night at eleven ....... I had no trek plans for the weekend. It was then that I realised that I had no plans otherwise too!! Painful to spend the weekend at home ... Ruled out ..... And that was how there was a post on the BMC yahoogroups announcing a one day hike/climb/timepass to Antargange!!

Early Sunday morning, twenty odd junta set out and reached Antargange pretty early! As expected, Tarsh and Neeraj couldn't wait till we reached the top to start exploring!! And so the fun began!! The first round of hilarious scenes was where attempts were being made to climb up a slippery rock and people were found in all kinda positions trying to 'help out' others!! After that, we pretty much left the main trail and formed our own routes across the boulders ..... Pretty soon, we were in the midst of nowhere - exactly where we planned to be!! :-D

With time, we found a good place to rappell and enthu junta as we were, we prepared ourselves for some abseiling. Meanwhile, I found myself a superb chimney to climb .... It was by far the best chimney that I had seen around Bangalore, and I started climbing!! Considerably high up from the ground, the lack of a safety rope began playing on my mind and I decided to live another day ........

Chimney Climbing at Antargange -- July 9 2k6

By then, I got a call from TK who claimed to be lost!!! Amazing how one can manage that!! But then, TK, KA and Naga were separated from the rest of the junta and trust Spice Telecom to give me network at all these places!!! :-)) (I could remember all the Chapparrs queing up for my phone for the New Year trek early this year at Kalhatti Falls when the only Mobile network there was Spice!!)

Me and PC set off to find these guys and get them back...... scampered over rocks, crawled under a few, and finally managed to find them back to the herd! ;-)

Rappelling at Antargange ......

Rappelling, by then, was in full swing and ppl seeemed to be enjoying it!! So, we continued that till four and decided to head back ....... The Wimbledon final between The Emperor Federer and his nemessis Nadal promised to be a feast (and it was!!) and so was the World Cup Soccer Finale between France and Italy - What a head-butt!!!