26th Feb. 2005
Successfully climbed Kalakrai Pinnacle.
Area: Karjat
Route Taken: Col
Height: 180 ft.
Lead Climber: Rajan Rikame
Summiteers: Rajan R, Kaivalya V, Rishi, Hemant M.

The Climb
One of the satisfied climb I ever had out of my 11 climbs in Sahyadri. The grade of the Kalakrai pinnacle from the col side is considered as Moderate. There are total 4 stages of climbing. The first one is easy climb one can find good condition bolts on the way. One can use the same for runner. The second stage is also a bit climb & traversing to the right most overhang. One can find 2 Pitons fixed for runner but one should check the condition before tackling the third stage which has a tricky overhang. The overhang move is major hurdle I suppose in the entire climb. One has to use lower cut hold on the protruding rock & move to the right side diagonally upwards. One can find a good condition bolt here. The forth stage is easy climb of 10-15 ft wall but the difficult scree above to tackle with. Then this is the summit where one can find plenty of Bolts fixed for descending from both end of the pinnacle. In the center there are 2 good condition pegs for anchoring.

Traveling
On 25th Feb 2005 Bhramanti's 2 team mate together for the exploration in this area. The Trek team is supposed to got to the Rajmachi vis Kondana Caves & next day return to Dhak Bhairy from the Rajmachi plateau& the from Bhairy Caves to the Base village Sandshi. The trek team was of size 10 while the climb team is of 4 members.

We traveled by Last Karjat Local from CST (12:45a of 26th) Then from Karjat Depot to Sandshi by the first ST Bus to Sandshi at 6:00am. It took one hr. to reach Sandshi. Had some breakfast & started our guided trek till the base to avoid the wastage of time for exploring various ways to reach the base. It took 4 hrs to reach the base. We took 1 hrs. rest & started our climb at around 1:30pm. I was leading the climb, It took 3 Hrs. 15 min to reach the summit. Then in next 1 hr. all our team members reached . We then started our trek from the col towards the bhairy cave at around 8:00pm & could able to set nr. the lower caves by 10:00pm. It was really a tiring day. We managed to had our food whatever available, ready to eat; since nobody has energy to cook & wait from another 1 hr. as well search for the water in the dark.

The next day was a very refreshing after a nice sleep in the cave. Hemant started his day to search for the water for his morning course so he was the initiator to hunt, Rishi helped him to do so. I made a tea for all of us & the started preparing the Lunch. We were quite relaxed since we skipped our another climbing plan of "Soon" Pinnacle. which is above the bhairy cave and nr. Dhak fort. The climb seems to be a small one but as per Kaivalya the efforts to reach the base of the pinnacle is far more than the actual Climb. So after having tea all of us were waiting for our trekking team. They arrived at around 12:45pm.

So after lunch we took them to Bhairy caves where one has to do little rock climbing. Nr. the cave there are a few ropes fixed along with a Bamboo for foot hold support. The cave is very big can accommodate 100 people. At the entrance a temple exist where daily the "Poojari" from Dhak village visit for pray. The cave has potable water source. ITs quite refreshing water.

We started our return journey by 4:00pm & reached the Village by 8:00pm where we got to knew that the last bus left the village for Karjat just by 5 min. We all were in no good mood since after a long walk this was the welcome news. But few among us were happy since there was a water pump (Bore well) where these guys wanted get refreshed. I was one of them within no time after fixing the further travel arrangement I went to the bore well for bath. By the time all of us were having tea and snacks to recharge for further travel. Then by Tempo we reached Karjat happily with group song to enjoy our success & togetherness. And by 9:30pm Mumbai local we returned back home little late.

For me really it was one of the good trek cum climbing experience.

Written By Rajan Rikame