Rock Climbing was rocking....

I had a perfect weekend about 3 weeks ago. It was just the right mixture of fun and physical exhaustion.
3 weeks ago, to be precise, on 12 Nov, I had been to a rock climbing trip. Okay. Okay. Lemme go chronologically…

Few months ago, over a cup of coffee, I happened to ask my colleague what is she doing for the weekend and the reply caught my attention. Trekking. Rock Climbing. Mountaineering. I was curious. That’s how I was introduced to this group: BMC(Bangalore Mountaineering Club).

Now that I spoke of this group, lemme give a brief intro. This group is a, to quote the founder, “non-profit” organization for enthusiastic adventurers. This is more like a yahoo-group,where the guyz/galz go on an adventure trip once a fortnight. Awesome group. Filled with real enthusiasts. They falter in no step in planning. They take care of every logistics issue. To register, you gotta be refered by members, please feel free to use my info for registration. RP & http://meetrp.blogspot.com.

Okay, back to my experience. After registering, for various personal reasons I was unable to participate. I decided, come what may to participate for the next event, which was this rock-climbing event in Ramnagar, which is between Mysore & Bangalore.

On Saturday Nov 12, 2005, at 6am whom-so-ever had their means of transport (incidently I had) left towards RamNagar and for others van facility was arranged. With the new Mysore highway in progress, I enjoyed the experience & the joy of riding my Archie (that’s how I call my Pulsar 150 DTS-i). We reached the destination at about 8am and the intro session went on. There were, to be precise, about 44 ppl. I was the only one from my company and I distinctly remember a huge gang from Motorola and a considerable number from Infy. I was kinda apprehensive but these guyz are a pro in putting people at ease. I was bombared by smiling faces, greeting words & extended hands. Man! It is a different world of enthusiasts. You don’t have a choice but to like them.

We were initially given some basic exercises and were split into two groups. One for Rock Climbing & the other for Rappelling. Each of us were given some training in ‘Bouldering’, which is mini-rock climbing. Guess, I did it well. (Some self pumping is required, after all it is my blog) I belonged to the group for rock-climbing. Initially, we climbed about 50,000 steps to the top of the hill. (Some guyz, who did not know practical energy-mathematics, counted the number of steps to be 373. Crap. It was not a step less than 75,000) After which we found a flat, smooth 50 feet tall rock! And guess? We were supposed to climb this damn thing!!! I almost fainted with magnitude of impossibility. But this group (filled with professional organizers) had arranged for a group of pros to help us. These pros (damn them!!) climbed this flat plain surface of rock like a lizard and set the whole hooks & other necessary safety pins in the rock for the amateurs. Then we began; it was our chance to be lizards….

Each of us, in turn did our trial & error. It was mostly filled with errors. We were given our harness and were supposed to climb! Just a rope around the waist & climb. Each of us struggled. Stumbled. Fell and was held by the rope & harness (Thank heavens). We heard lot of screams. Pleads for help. Words of haplessness. Prayers for safe returns to ground. Shouts of ecstasy (almost rare). But nevertheless everybody gave it a shot. From my part, Damn it!, I couldn’t even climb 25 feet. I almost scrapped my knees more than once & my shoes are part of history now. All of us returned to the ground with the thought “May be I should have tried a little more”.

Anyways, after this we climbed down to the bottom of the hill by 2:30pm. (And, yeah, the return was indeed only 373 steps. What a construction! You climb up 90,000 steps and climb down only 373!!! Gr8!) Though our fingers were sour, had a sumptuous lunch. Shared our expert(!!!) advices with the other group, who had been on rappelling. We then rushed to our next event – Rappelling.

Rappelling was relatively easier. You gotta slid down the rope from top of the mountain to the bottom. Ofcourse, harness and rope are tied around your waist. The best part of this session is that, we walk on the walls of the rock. It feels great. Just imagine, walking parallel to the ground! Look at the sky and feel part of it. Feel almost like a bird. A featherless bird. I would give my dayz wager for a repeat. It was wonderful.

After this, we reached our base zero by 6pm. The best performers in both galz & boyz section were given a gift and we left to our places.

I would not do justice if I dont mention about the people I met. The best part I really enjoyed, apart from physical activity, was the guyz/galz I met. They were gr8. The following people would hopefully remember me! Lemme recollect… (Chronologically)

Ajay from Covansys,
Vijayesh not-sure-from-where,
Vinay from Infy,
Lakshmi not-sure-from-where (who was supposed to mail me & did not. Are you listening, Lakshmi???),
Madhavi, Saumya (am I still in your enemy list even after the safety ropes??? ;-), Shilpa, Kushal, Mohan-the-god and Prashanth from Motorola,
Anish guess is from Infy,
Prasad from Infy
and, yeah, from the great BMC team Roopa.

Man, these people rock. I really loved the time I spent with them. Hours rolled into seconds amidst them. Very fun loving & very very jolly-go-lucky with a lot of broad-mind. Would not hesitate to join these people anytime for any event. That day was tiring & physically exhausting but mentally and psychologically it was a gr8 boost.

This post is almost a dedication to BMC. Would love to repeat any event with this group. Hail BMC!!!