Cloud 9 on Savandurga, India

Keerthi had arranged a van to take us and while the rest of the party went home to Bangalore, we 8-9 of us (six rookies, Keerthi, and 2 of his assistants) headed towards Savandura. We reached the base around 8 pm. It was a partially moonlit night. 

And then the party began ;-)

I was wearing ordinary trainers, I had zero knowledge of rock climbing but I was in high spirits and in decent health to make up for my lack of experience. None of us wore harnesses. Keerthi’s plan was to tie a rope around his own waist and lead the route (he alone knew the route). The rest of us were unroped, and we were told we could grab the rope is we felt scared of felt like losing footing. In hindsight, we were essentially free-soloing! 

Well, the climb was scary to say the least; even the staunchest atheist would think of God during the climb. Once on the route, I simply didn’t have the option to turn back; my only escape would be to keep climbing up resolutely until we reached the top, after which we would find an easier route for descent. I maintained the climbing posture throughout the climb i.e. face toward the rock and on all fours; I was too scared to face out or sit even once; even the wait at the "belay stations" was in the same frozen position. Not a sip of water, not a moment to scratch an itch, not even peering down or looking at the watch during the whole climb. 

The belay station was a joke, it had grooves where Keerthi, the leader would have enough foot-hold to face out and sit, and catch a follower's fall. Keerthi of course was rock solid, he became a superman to us. He was powerfully built and I felt somewhat safe. With a few such "belays", the entire climb must have taken us about 2 hours. We summited around 10pm and made an uneventful descent around midnight from the hiking path. Barring a parched throat, both from exertion and constant fear, I don't recall having been too tired; the cold air was conducive for climbing.

I had cried in fear during the climb; I had vowed never to climb anything remotely like this again. However, unknown to me, that night was a fateful one; deep inside, I had transformed from a hiker/nature loving backpacker to an adventurer and climber. Ironically the bug had bitten me but I had other priorities in life and I could not climb for 14 years after that.

Work took me very far from climbing/Bengaluru and I almost lost touch with Keerthi. However I could start climbing once again in 2010 in Switzerland.

Cloud 9, 2011

I am 36 now, and have a 10 year old boy. I used to work in Switzerland those days and had come to Bangalore on vacation and reconnected with Keerthi. In these years Keerthi had turned pro and had been the coach for the Indian climbing team for several years now, so he was the ideal friend to turn to, to find me climbing partners during my holiday.

When he told me he had bolted up this very route a few years back (in 1996 there was nothing; it was free solo on an untouched route) I could feel my hormones tingling; I simply wanted to do it again, but this time in relative safety. The route is 9 pitches long, aptly named "Cloud 9". Grade is mostly 4a-4c, max 5a grade.  Both my son and I had been climbing together regularly in the preceding weeks, so I thought my son could join the climb if I found a strong climber to join us. Keerthi couldn't join, so he instead offered to send Sujil, a strong climber from the Indian Army climbing team. When I heard this I readily agreed.

Circa 2011 (Jan 7)

The next day we set off at 6:00 am from Bengaluru (Bangalore). The good thing about Bengaluru is weather is always perfect at this time of the year, and very little crowds in places like Savandurga. After a short hike we reached the base of the rock. We can’t see the bolts, and it is hard to make out the route, so we veered too much to the right, meeting the normal way up (which is a difficult hike, maybe T4 SAC grade). After nearly an hour of exploring on the steep base, which is actually a bit tricky: steepish and no protection/bolts, and phone calls to Keerthi, we finally located the climbing route.

  

Sujil began leading pitch after pitch of what turned out to be a superlative climb that all three of us enjoyed to the core. The bolts are excellently laid out; they are quite far apart though. It can be very scary to have such long runouts (sometimes 20m or so!). Since Sujil was leading I offered to carry the group’s backpack, without which I could probably have led most of the pitches too. There are one or two pitches where the runouts are very long and one must make a calculated guess about the location of the next bolt; tricky, I must say.
  

Anyway we reached the summit in about 3 hours. There were no doubt some small delays/complaints from my son Rahul. For example he felt his shoes pinched, so he barefooted a few pitches despite having such soft baby skin which soon enough broke. Then he dropped a shoe, which fortunately slowly rolled down into my arms so I could return it to its owner. It was Rahul's first multi-pitch route, and barring one place where he felt some fear and dithered, I think he climbed flawlessly and was enjoying it to the hilt.

Once at the top, after an unhurried lunch we began the descent on the normal route and were back down safely shortly after.

It was an awesome climb for all three of us, especially for the father-son duo.