What n When:
Rock Climbing & Rappelling at Ramnagaram - [14th Nov 2009]
http://bmcindia.org/events/rockclimbing-at-ramnagaram.html
Get up at 5:30.. walk over to murugesh pallya.. wait for moorthy n chidu to turn up.. and then wait for the BMC truck to show up..
( for all you mumbaikars... nope.. im not referring to the bombay municipal corporation waste collection truck... this ones the bangalore mountaineering club's rickety ol'mini-bus )..
the ride to ramnagaram.. uneventful.. slept thru most of it.. except for our bfast pitstop at Annapoorna.. where we ate the world famous TATTE IDLY..
( i did see one foreigner.. and lots of people from all over india eating there..ohh wait.. they were all with our group.. so nope..not that famous i guess..)
we did see one very playful spaniel/setter/gascogne puppy....(im no dog specialist.. hence the confusion abt the breed)...the dog was just too cute.. some day i need to get my own dog..
once we reached ramnagaram.. the sight that greeted us was pretty awesome.. very sholay'esque.. (if this is ever accepted into the english dictionary.. i want the credit!).. lots of isolated "kopjes".. and breathtaking cliffs all around..
and with the recent rains... lots of green and little lakes/ponds all around..
onto task1: (or so i thought)
luckily for me.. i wasnt aware of the true nature of this task. we just kept following our guide up this long series of rocky steps up this mountain..after abt 15 mins of climbing up.. we stop at a point..and then its revealed that this was his idea of a warm up.. ( yea rite.. and i was pretty much done for the day!)
but the view from the top.. was worth the climb up i guess..)
anyways.. climbed back down.. n then moved onto the rapelling point..
the actual task 1: rappelling..
walked over to this smooth 80-100foot rock surface...where 2 parallel rappelling gear was already setup...into the harness and another short trek up the mountain.. and we were ready to transform into special ops commandos...
task 2: rock climbing
the website describes this activity as ideal for beginners and newbies.. yea right..
we trek over to this 20 odd feet rocky surface.. with a little crack running along the length from top to bottom..the first 12 odd feet.. had just a few hand grip holds to haul urself up...no amount of mission impossible background scores helped.. and finally after a lot of huffing and puffing.. and bruised egos and hands/knees.. scaled the damn rock..
task3: rock climbing 2 (chimney climb)
this one was interesting.. it involves climbing up between 2 vertical rocky surfaces that are close to each other.. leaving just enough gap in between to prop yourself with your back against one surface.. and your feet on the other..
this particular one was a 30 odd feet high climb.. relatively easy on the hands.. but took its toll on the feet of some...personally,I found this easier to do.. and had a blast..
photographs were taken.. and can be seen at this link..
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/rahul69nair/RappellingRockClimbingAtRamnagaram14Nov09#
im still waiting to collect snaps from other cameras in the group... the complete album shud be up in a weeks time..
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