Yogish told me about this trek two weeks ago. Antia was willing to take us to Chanderi (he had climbed it already some years ago). Since it involved a long climb with the use of ropes, the group had to be small (maximum 5), and it should be people with some previous experience. Every time there is a trek I automatically try to go, so this was no exception and I said that I was interested without giving it a second thought. I don't like to do dangerous things, so whether I would climb or not the difficult part was something that I would decide only when looking at the mountain. If it turned out to be to difficult, I could always wait for them at the base.

Finally the group consisted of four people: Antia, Yogish, Surjeet and me. Antia, of course is the expert, and both Yogish and Surjeet are comfortable trekking in steep terrain. I couldn't have chosen better partners for a difficult trek!.

Besides being difficult, the trek is also long, so Antia decided to leave the night before, taking the last train, at 0.45. I wanted to have a nice long nap after lunch on Friday, to be well rested for the trek, but there were two interesting talks that I couldn't miss, so that was not possible. Then I had a quick dinner at 7 pm, and immediately got everything ready for the trek (water, etc...) and went to get some sleep. I slept for 90 minutes or so. Would that be enough?.

In the evening Arvind was thinking about coming, but finally decided not to come. So the four of us met, took the BEST bus to VT, and then the train to Vangani, where we arrived at 3am. We didn't get any sleep in the train. It was quite crowded. By the time we got to Vangani there was just a few people in the train. There was a noisy group that seemed to go to Matheran. Vangani was completely deserted.

There was a nice full moon, so there was no need for torches. First we had to walk for 30 minutes on the road. It was a pleasant walk, from time to time there was some mist. It was nice to be walking and seeing the stars at the same time. In the horizon one could barely see some mountains, but the terrain around us was still quite flat. At some point Antia told us to get to a path that was visible to our left (west). He was not very sure if this was the correct path, but we took it anyway. Surjeet was hungry, so we stopped for some minutes to have something to eat and drink. It was not too cold, but it was not warm either, so I put on my rain jacket while we were eating, but removed it when we started to walk again.

Very soon the path disappeared in the forest. Inside the forest we had to use torches, and even then it was quite tricky to find our way. Besides, we were still so far from the mountain that we couldn't even see it. It took us some time to get to a small col. From this col we saw for the first time Chanderi. It is a quite impressive square-looking mountain. On the right there is an equally impressive and very steep cone-shaped peak: Mhasmal.

Antia knew that we had to go down to some valley and then go up the valley to get to Chanderi, but it looked as if the valley that was in front of us was not the right one, because there seemed to be two ridges between us and Chanderi. After some thought, it seemed clear that we had to go to the next ridge, in front of us, but instead of going down to the valley and climbing again, we decided to try to follow the ridge we were at, in the hope that it would connect to the next one.

There was a nice path going our way, following our ridge, so we started walking without any further thought, hoping this would lead us to the next ridge. One interesting thing is that the leaves of the trees had a lot of dew. We were so convinced that this was the right path (and so unwilling to get again inside the forest) that we didn't realize that the path was going up too much. After some time we had to admit that we had walked way too much. Of course, at that time we didn't know where we were. Probably we were actually getting close to Nakhind.

At least, Chanderi was visible in the distance, so we knew where we wanted to go. If we wanted to go in a straight line, we had to go down to the valley in front of us. It was still night, so it was not clear what was in the bottom of the valley, or whether it would be possible to go down. Near the top of the ridge the forest was burnt, so it was clear, but very soon the forest looked quite thick. I really don't like to walk in such a thick forest, when you don't even know if you are going in the right direction. We tried to find a good path going down, but decided that it was too dark to do it now. One possibility was to wait until sunrise. The other possibility was to go back to the col we had been some time back, and try this time a more direct route. I was starting to feel tired and sleepy, so the idea of waiting for the sunrise was tempting, but the only thought of getting inside a thick forest changed my mind. Fortunately we decided to walk back. After some time we realized that we were not walking the same path. Instead of the original ridge, now we were in an open plateau, with not many trees. Anyway, this seemed to be getting us in the right direction. I think that eventually we managed to do what we had tried: to go from one ridge to the next without getting into the valley, but since we didn't turn in the right place, we had taken a quite long detour. After some time, the valley in front of us seemed to be the right one, leading to Chanderi. Also the ridge at this point was low, and it looked easy to walk down to the valley. There should be a village down there. We couldn't see the village, but we could see a fire, so at least there should be someone there that could give us some directions. We started to descend.

The moon was already low, near the horizon, in the direction of some distant pinnacles. It was a really nice view. Very slowly, the light of dawn started to replace the light of the moon. We sat down for some time, to drink some water. When the dawn got bright enough, we were surprised to see that the village was just in front of us!. That fire that we had seen was actually a fire-place in the village. We also saw that, because of the burnt parts that we had crossed, our clothes were completely dirty. It was nice that the night was over. Route-finding was going to be much easier now. The moon was getting down in the horizon, and now it didn't look bright, as in the middle of the night.

I was starting to feel quite sleepy and it was still only 7am. It seemed that the short time that I had slept after dinner had not been enough. I put my backpack as a pillow, and I think that I actually fell slept for a moment, but they woke me up because we had to start moving again. I would have really liked to get an hour or two of good sleep, but we were already getting late. If we hadn't got lost, we could have had some time to sleep, but now that didn't seem possible. I thought that if I felt very sleepy, I would just skip the climbing part, and wait for them having a nice long nap.

Very soon we got down to the valley and started to walk. Chanderi still looked really far away, all its sides quite vertical. Our plan looked an impossible feat: to go all the way to that distant mountain, without a clearly defined path, to find the climbing route, to get there, and then to come back, all non-stop, before the end of the day that had just started.

At sunrise it got cloudy, something very rare in January. The view of Chanderi partly covered by clouds was really impressive, the vertical walls partly covered by the clouds and its summit towering above, lit by the red light of the morning. We stopped to take some pictures.

Chanderi above the clouds

Again we had some route-finding problems, but now, at daylight, everything was easier. The problem is that the forest is criss-crossed by many paths, probably used by villagers to get wood, so they don't lead to any particular place: for some time they look very nice and wide, but then they suddenly disappear.

After some time we finally got to the head of the valley: our path finished in the dry river-bed and we started to climb it, towards the col between Chanderi and Mhasmal. This was basically jumping from rock to rock, like going up irregular stairs, with big steps, and we were gaining altitude very quickly. It was easy, but I thought that I would be tiring to go down later, when we were tired. We didn't realize that there was a bifurcation, and we took the left branch instead of the right. Fortunately we soon realized that we had made a mistake: we were moving too much to the left, and the river-bed in front of us seemed to stop in a vertical wall.

The nala goes to the col (1) on the right. From there the path climbs by the ridge to the base of the pinnacle (2) attached to Chanderi, and then traverses by the other side.

We came down a little, saw the right branch and continued there. The path eventually leaves the river-bed and goes parallel to it. It is steep, but anyway we walked quite fast, and it was not long before we got to the col. It was around 9.30 or 10.00. Chanderi is narrow and long, running in a northwest-southeast direction, the same direction as the main mountains of the Matheran range. The col is in the northwest, but the climbing route is in the southeast end, so we had to traverse the whole mountain on its southwest side. But before doing this, we had a nice breakfast for 30 minutes. There were some food novelties in this trek: instead of the classic egg-less cheese spread, we were trying a new onion-masala cheese spread by Britannia. I liked it a lot!. I will make sure that this becomes a standard item in the following treks. I would have really liked to sleep for some time. Unfortunately there was no time for that.

Fortunately, at this time the character of the trek changed for good. Finally the dreadful, boring and mentally exhausting (at least for me) walk through the forest was over. Now the path was clear. Before getting to the traverse we had to climb a little in the direction of Chanderi. This was so much enjoyable than the forest!. Unfortunately I was a little sleepy, but finally we were going up a nice and reasonable steep ridge, with ample views on both sides. I really like the feeling of "trekking towards the sky" that you get on a nice ridge. And behind us the impressive Mhasmal, and very soon all the mountains behind Mhasmal started to be visible: Tavli, Haji Malang,...

The traverse. The red arrow points the path ahead

Soon we got to the traverse, a scree slope, with the vertical rock face on our left, and an ample view to our right. In the Sahyadris there are plenty of awesome places like this (like Jivdhan or Ratangad). Not surprisingly, at this time I completely forgot about being sleepy or tired. The traverse is exposed, but we all felt reasonably comfortable on scree, so it was not hard. From time to time the path down-climbs a little, going directly down, so in this places we used to advance in sitting position.

Looking back to the traverse. The pinnacle can be seen in the back. The summit is in the center.

There is a large cave in the middle of the traverse, with a water tank, but we didn't stop there. We finished the traverse around 11.30, so finally we arrived to the starting point of the climb. There is a big platform at this point, with a small water tank.

Antia told us where the starting point of the climb was. One can only see the first few meters, and they were not hard. It was just steep walking on rock. I started to climb a little, to have Yogish take a picture of me. Since only the first meters were visible, it was difficult to decide how hard the climb was going to be. Antia took his rope (about 60 meters long), and we roped up (we tied the rope around the waist), at equal intervals along the rope. Antia was first, then me, then Surjeet, and finally Yogish. The sun was strong, and the wall faces more or less towards the south, so I applied a good amount of sun cream. Antia gave a one minute crash course on hip belay and a few instructions, we took two rucksacs with some water bottles, left the rest of the rucksacs behind a rock, and before we could realize, we were already climbing!.

The general technique is that at a given moment, only one person is climbing. The person just above him "belays" the climber. This means that he is sitting in some safe place, holding the rope tight, so that in case that the climber slips, the belayer will immediately arrest the fall. The belayer has the rope around the waist (hence the name "hip belay"), and most of the weight of the climber will be hold by the friction of the rope around the waist. The belayer has to be careful so that the rope is kept reasonably tight at every moment. If he leaves some slack in the rope and the climber falls, then the climber will pick up some momentum in the fall until the rope becomes tight, and the belayer will receive a strong pull. And if the falling climber picks up too much momentum, he could pull the belayer, and both will fall.

The first climbing stretch

Of course, the first person (Antia) doesn't have anybody belaying from above. If he falls, then he will fall for a long distance, and then the second (me!) has to try to stop him.

This technique can only be used on easy climbs, when it is not very steep. In that case, instead of "falling" one is actually just "sliding" down the slope, and one is not picking up as much momentum because of friction with the ground. In fact, some of my climbing friends would *never* climb using this technique. If a rope is needed at all, they will use the safer methods used in difficult climbing.

Antia went first, and then I followed this first stretch (each stretch was something less than 20 meters, since this was the rope length between two of us). In that point there is a good hole in the rock, and you can pass an auxiliary rope around it and tie yourself to it with a carabiner. Doing this, one is actually attached to the wall: nothing will pull you down. This first stretch was easy, basically just steep walking on good rugged rock, moving towards the right. The rock gets steeper, but there are some small steps cut in the rock and then a small but long rim on the rock that makes an excellent handhold to traverse a little to the left, until you get to a nice small platform or ledge.

Then Antia went for the second stretch. From my position I couldn't see the whole of the second stretch, due to the convexity of the rock, so when he arrived to the next place he shouted to let me know. Then it was Surjeet turn to do the first stretch. I belayed with the HMS ("clove hitch"), and when he got to my position I prepared an HMS so that he would belay Yogish. But before Yogish started, it was my turn to do the second stretch.

I belaying Surjeet in the first climbing stretch.

First it goes a little to the left. There is a steep rock that has some good steps cut on the rock. This is the most vertical part of the whole climb. Moving slowly there is not much problem. Then one traverses to the right, following a small ledge, until I got to Antia's position. According to Antia there used to be a piton here that one could use like the hole in the previous place, but now it was gone. He was just sitting on the ledge, with a small solid rock in front that made his position safe.

After I arrived, we told Yogish to do the first stretch. While Yogish was climbing, I was sitting with Antia, and I started to think about the safety of our climb. For rock climbing standards, the climbing was certainly easy, that didn't bother me. But it did bother me that there was some exposure. Maybe the safety margin was too narrow: easy climbing, but maybe dangerous. I told Antia that I was thinking about turning around, but he convinced me that it would be fine, and I am glad that he did!. And I was also glad that I had had some previous climbing training. Even if I don't plan to do any serious rock climbing, knowing the basic techniques turned out to be very useful here.

After Yogish climbed the first stretch, it was Antia's turn to do the third. Then Surjeet came to where I was, and again it was my turn to climb. This third stretch is easier, since the face loses some steepness. It also finishes in a ledge, but now there is no rock protecting you, so one has to be a little careful when belaying.

After I arrived, Antia went for the fourth stretch. It took him a little longer than the other stretches. Yogish climbed the second stretch, Surjeet the third, and then I went for the fourth. It is less steep than the rest, but here one is climbing mainly on scree, instead of on rock, so one has to go with care. It starts going a little to the right, but very soon goes up directly, following a ridge. Climbing on scree reminds me a little of snow climbing. One can kick steps, putting the foot sidewise. In the last part there are some rocks. Antia had climbed directly on the rocks, but I chose to go slightly to the right (coming down I realized that the best was to go slightly on the left of the rocks). This stretch finishes in a solid tree. Sitting with one leg on each side on the tree it is easy to do a safe belay. This stretch is probably the most difficult one in this trek, and one should be extremely careful while coming down.

From this point the path enters in a narrow and long gully (about 4 meters wide), it is less steep, and it is mostly on scree. It is definitely easier than the part that we had already climbed. There were three stretches here, until a small cave (just big enough to sit four people). Next to the cave there is a small water tank with good water. The cave is made on the right wall as you go up. After the cave the gully still continues for 2 more stretches, and it leads to a small col. From here you can see the other side of the mountain and the valley were we had been "lost" during the night.

From this point the path is easier. It is on rock, and it presents no problem. There is no need to belay, so we started to walk, just holding the rope with the hand, but I suggested that since we were not going to use the rope, it would be better to unrope and walk independently, and this is what we did. I thought that it would be faster and safer that way.

This part was also very nice. It felt like going up on stairs, and the view was awesome. Finally we got to the top!. It is very narrow, a couple of meters at most, and very long. The shape is similar to Siddhagad, but it is much narrower. We were on the southeast end, and the northwest end looked higher, so we decided to go there. This walk was very enjoyable. It almost feels like you are walking on the sky!. Tiny forests, down on your left and right, and mountain tops in front and behind you. At some point there is a big rock and we passed this rock by the left. It has some exposure and you have to hold to the rock, but it is not difficult, so we didn't bother about looking on the right of the rock. Maybe there is a less exposed path on that side, but it will be longer.

It was around 1.30 pm when we got to the summit, and we only stayed there for a few minutes, since there was still a long way to go back. From the top we could see clearly a very straight path, going across the forest, from the base of the nala that leads to the saddle, to a village that is very close to the village that we crossed in the morning (this village is actually on the other side of the main valley, on the right side as you look towards Chanderi). This was the path that we should have taken in the morning.

Unfortunately we didn't take the camera with us, so we couldn't take any picture from the top.

Climbing down took a little longer. We came down to the point where we had our rucksacks around 4 or 4.30 pm. We ate a quick snack, and I had an aspirin, since I was starting to have a headache. Fortunately it went away quickly. We did the traverse quickly, and around 5 or 5.30 pm we arrived to the col. We sat in the shade of the trees and had some more food in just 15 minutes.

Coming down the creek was not as bad on the knees as I thought it was going to be. This time we found the correct path through the forest, going straight to a village very near the village where we had been in the morning. Before we got there it was already completely dark. We asked for directions to the villagers, but there was some confusion, so it took us some time to find a good path that we thought that would go to the main road. First we had to go to the same village where we had been in the morning. From there there was a very good path (wide enough for a car), but it was going too much in the direction of Badlapur, and getting there would be a long walk. We crossed another village, where they told us that we were going in the right direction, but maybe there was a shorter route. Finally we could see that we were getting close to the main road and the train track. At that time the moon was rising. We passed near what looked like a big temple, and finally arrived to the main road. It was 8 pm, so we had been trekking for 18 hours!.

Just in front of use there was a hotel ("Chanderi hotel"), where we had a quick simple dinner (vegetable, chapati, rice and dhal). They told us that we were 4 km away from Vangani and 6 km away from Badlapur, but fortunately an auto-rickshaw stopped, and took us to Vangani. We waited just for a short time in the station, drinking bad tea, and finally got in the train. At that moment I had been awake for almost 24 hours, and in the last 36 hours I had only slept for 90 minutes!, so it was not surprising that we soon fell asleep. But it was a very restless sleep. The train trip was a little more than two hours long, and in the second hour I was constantly falling asleep and waking up, looking at the watch. Finally we arrived to VT, took a taxi, and it was almost midnight when we were back at TIFR.