The Duke's Nose

Saturday May 26, 2007

After a brief chat conversation with Shripad, I decided to fit one more thing into my already packed sack: some beer…errr some gear to climb Duke’s Nose. Shripad has been up this wall some 5 times and was looking for someone to climb Duke’s again for some practice before he set off to the Karakorams for an expedition. He got more than what he had bargained for. Instead of one climbing partner, he got 2 more – Sneha and Meenaz. The whole planning over the net was somehow getting a bit too impersonal. I mean the butterflies in my stomach were missing initially. But as D-day started to come closer the butterflies attacked in hordes with each passing day.

As the speakers blasted “Papa was a rolling stone”, Sneha, Meenaz and I were rolling on the Mumbai Pune expressway. It was roughly 6 am when we met Shirpad and his friend Mithika at Lonavala. Since none of the shops were open at that time, we couldn’t get waste anytime drinking tea or coffee. So we proceeded towards the base village. Mithika happened to know Sneha. Both of them were at NIM together.

This was the third time I was meeting Shripad. I met Shripad some months back, after we bumped into each other on orkut. Over the months I kept in touch with him but rarely met him. This was the first time I was all set to climb with him. He is a well known face in the Pune climbing scene. Not one of the loudest, but yes one of the most humble kinds. After much probing he will tell you his long list of impressive climbs. Climbing Duke’s Nose with his regular partner in 1.5 hours flat or the first ascent of Kapro Kangri in the Karakorams for example.

As we walked towards the base, all of us just got to know each other better. The walk was more or less gradual and took 30 mins. We suddenly came out on this plateau from where I could see the Mumbai Pune Expressway. Just then Shripad had a wicked smile. He asked us to turn left. And BOOM! Here it was, the massive 800 feet rock monolith called Duke’s Nose. For a few minutes none of us could take our eyes of it. There was a strange mix of fear and excitement.

This is the first time I had ever seen Duke’s Nose in person, having studied it only in photographs, but my first reactions faded away quickly and my body started to sweat when I thought about what I am going to do. I have taken the challenge of climbing Duke’s Nose, so the height that brought me to a frenzy, now was giving me some serious goose bumps. My lifelong fear of falling had suddenly overcome the initial excitement as I continue towards the base of this giant.

While chanting I can’t believe I’m going to climb that over and over in my head, I soon found myself anchored on the ledge below the upper 300 feet of this rock monolith along with Sneha, Meenaz, Shripad and Mithika. Mithka had come along just to soak in the fun and yes the sun. But having her around was simply great. She took the camera and promised us that there will surely be some snaps cool enough to be uploaded on the orkut album. It was decided that Meenaz would lead the first pitch. Shripad would be the second man followed by Sneha and I would clean up the route. Shripad told me that they refer the last man as the jaduwala. Err…whatever man, who cared.















At 8.30 Meenaz clipped on the first quick draw on the face. The first pitch was a steep route but with places to rest and the occasional jug hold. She led it very smoothly. 12 QDs clipped and she was up the 1st ledge. Till some days back Duke’s was something that we had just dreamt of, so it was great to see her lead. Fortunately, the weather was unusually cool, and we were able to check out the first pitch while it was still in the shade. Shripad zoomed off like a spider. Sneha followed him. They hauled up two small pittus with 3 liters of water and a few bananas. I swept the place after explaining Mithika how to use the camera. The friction was superb. And before I could realize, I was at the 1st ledge a bit dazed. WHOA man!








The next pitch say just about 40 feet above was Shirpad’s lead. This small traverse towards the right seemed to be a routine affair for him. In about 30 mins all four of us reached this ledge. The ledge was a tiny one, but big enough for 4 of us to hang. The route above was clearly visible. It was an up going traverse towards the left, right below the overhanging crack. Shirpad said that the next pitch will be the one directly above the crack and not below it. A banana and a few sips of water and he started the lead again. He reached the base of the crack quite quickly. After that it seemed quite an effort even for him. I shouted a few words of encouragement as Shripad tenaciously worked his way up the pitch. Quite a few push pulls and he was finally up this hair rising pitch. “Alright guys…Am anchored”, he thundered.

I figured the climbing would be easier above, but this didn’t turn out to be the case. Meenaz and Sneha went after him. Both of them climbed till the base of the crack and then clipped on their jummars on the supply line to go beyond the overhang. That’s when there were slight problems. The sun started blazing. We ran out of water! And more importantly there was a problem with the jummar. Shripad was used to jummaring with a single jummar. We weren’t. So he lowered the 2nd jummar. But then again it dint have a proper leg loop, something that we were used too. So it took a some effort for these two iron janes to jummar up. The wind was so loud that communication would have been a big problem if not for Benji’s walkie talkies. I was below on the ledge and Benji’s words were ringing loud and clear in my head. The words which always asked us to practice jummaring. I was relived to see Sneha finally reach the next ledge. Thanks to the heat and parched throat I ran up the wall. Jummared the crack quickly and finally came in the shade. Phew!

Shripad offered me to lead the final pitch. He had almost convinced me that it was the easiest of the lot, just with a bit of scree. Well just a bit. I remembered Benji’s description of leading this last pitch. I politely asked him to do the needful so that we could go up fast. But before going up he extracted a promise out of me. That I’ll have to treat him. Treat…dude I was willing to go up and dig a well! We could see a long shadow of Shirpad leading the final pitch on the Duchess, a rock face exactly opposite Duke’s. Another 20 mins and his voice boomed again. “Ok am there”. One by one all of us started climbing the last bit. Of course there was loads of scree and the holds were crumbly as well. It was around 5, when all of us topped out. On the summit we were exuberant and parched. But to my surprise Mithika had come up there with 2 big bottles of water. God bless her.

AHOY! So we were finally on top of this rock tower of which we had till date just daydreamed. We reached Mumbai at around 12 and we were still dreaming about it.

Snaps courtsey Mithika, uploading mehnat by Sneha. Enjoy the snaps -http://picasaweb.google.com/sathe.sneha/DUKES

The Incredible Sunday

Ritz – We should go some where man…you are here for just another 2 weekends or so

Benji – ok am game…lets go on the 10 & 11 th

Ritz – but where…plus valley?

Benji – how about duke's?

Ritz – err fuck… how about Tel Baila?

Benji – well…how about Sunday 1?

Ritz – hmmmm…u kno the place?

Benji – I shall find out….ask others too…

Ritz – what say meenaz?

Meenaz – ya partner…. it's been a long time since we went somewhere

Ritz – where?

Meenaz – somewhere ya…

Ritz – sneha?

Sneha – ya I don't mind…lets go for a long weekend before I join my new job

Ritz – kya bolta hai mallick?

Jigna – ha ha…chalo chalo…but where

Ritz – somewhere re…itna soch mat

SMS from Benji to everyone – are you guys keen on climbing Sunday 1?







The build up to our first big wall of the year couldn't get any bigger. Another 66 odd calls and god knows how many smses later, we were stacking up a Chevy Taverra. The destination was the Holy temple town of Trambakeshwar, just 30 km away from Nashik. Roughly 4 hours away from Sneha's place. The ride on the busy single lane Mumbai–Nashik highway at midnight was rather smooth. Apart from the unruly honks, the odd pothole and skipping cd nothing really disturbed our ride.


The Chevy rolled into Trambakeshwar at around 6.30ish. At first glance the place looks like a holier than thou Indian temple town version of El Dorado. A small township surrounded by the mighty western ghats from all sides. Though it was mid-february, the chill was very much in the air.

The approach to Sunday 1 started in rather bizarre fashion. We showed everyone at the Dhabha a small picture of the massif and enquired. Benji asked a couple of guys outside the public loo too. But none seem to know the place with the fancy English name. One Hero Honda riding milkman claimed to know about it. Rest assured he sent us completely in the opposite direction. We discovered it only after about 2 hours hike from where we parked the vehicle. The massif does guard its wrong approach fiercely.

It was a through a minefield of thorns of all sizes. And if that was not enough there was a long exposed traverse on rock to reach the base. As we started hydrating ourselves, we realized there was a straight path up to here directly from the place where we had grub.


"THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!"

Meenaz began the lead by jamming her freshly taped fingers into a slender crack. I was belaying her. And above us soared the great rock parabola of Sunday 1. At just under 300 vertical feet, with 3 pitches, Sunday 1 is supposedly crankier than Duke's nose.

It's been more than a year that we have been climbing together. And this was by far her best lead I have seen till date. There are no bolts. The rock is flaky. The holds are sloppy. Phew! Am proud of you toughie.

On the whole face there are only 6 bolts. This apart there's a hair-raising crux section —an overhanging patch, almost 200 feet off the deck, with a crack so scary that Benji required 45 mins to negotiate. Benji lead the traverse from the ledge 1 to ledge 2. There was a moment of silence after Benji came to the crux. He had jammed 3 camming devices for protection. He had 3 false starts. And he came down most probably pumping his mind with the chants of - "Get on it! Go! Go! Go!".

Soon the ecstatic boom of his voice could be heard down – "I found a bolt man". He had reached ledge 2 – a hanging belay station, with 2 bolts and 1 peg. By the time Meenaz joined him there, the clock had crossed 6. Both of them rappelled off the face after fixing a 10.3 mm rope.

Meanwhile we three down had our necks hurting looking up all the time. Sneha and Jigna managed the supply line while I was on the walkie talkie. There wasn't much physical exertion, but we had seen enough action to keep our adrenalin levels flowing. As the stars lit up the brilliant sky, the wind-chill factor increased. Sleeping in the col was simply out of question. With sacks we walked down and found a somewhat flat patch for all of us to fit in.

The next day was much colder. So much so that Jigna began jummaring in her fleece. In just about 12 mins she was there at the belay station. I was next. It was almost a year since I had jummared. So did have some hiccups going up. But after some 20 feet or so I was fine. Sneha came up right after me. The intensity was starting to build. Jigna began the next lead. There were 4 bolts in line from this place. Just one bolt up and we hear it — a desperate yell: "Falling!" Looking up, we see Jjgna mercifully come to a stop just above my face. Not bogged down one bit, she started clipping the QDS in bolt after bolt, till she came to a dead end. She couldn't make out the route. Neither could we.

Suddenly Benji's voice cracked on the walkie – "Ask to her to stay anchored. Am coming" For me and Sneha it was a long long wait on the second ledge. Almost 4 hours. Benji's voice boomed out of the blue – We summited!

I finally started to climb. The route was slightly overhanging till I came to a small balcony kind of place. After that it was a small traverse to the right. I found the traverse a bit scary because a fall there would have meant going straight into the inviting cactus. Putting aside my fear I started to crawl my fingers through the crack. I soon came to a place where I could see the Jigna. Benji was standing right above her. In between them was yet another vertical crack of say 15 feet. A few breadths later I was with Benji admiring the views from the window created by the crack. "That's the summit man", said Benji, patting my back. Huffing and puffing I asked him cant we top out, this seems more like a fore summit? He said we'll see.

Sneha started climbing after me and then Meenaz started behind her. One by one we all managed to assemble in that tiny window. Benji began the final lead. It was hardly a 15 feet climb and quite easy compared to the rest of the climb. I was the last to summit at 6 pm. The feeling of on top with your climbing buddies - simply incredible."

Descent was a lightening fast affair. Sneha was the first to rappel down, followed by Meenaz, Jigna, myself and Benji. By the time I was on the second part of the rappel it was pitch dark. My Black Diamond lamp lived up to its reputation of lighting up the wall. Yet it I got more than enough butterflies in my tummy coming down the face, with lights visible at a huge distance. Benji, our last man was down from the wall at 8.30.

The most remarkable thing about this climb was the formidable rush and the tremendous drive it generated. So far, my best experience. One the way back we dint speak much to each other, but there was a definite silent smile on our faces.

Sunday 1 had been climbed on an incredible Sunday.