Skandagiri:
A famous hill known for its night trek and breathtaking views, an awesome trek which every one should go at least once in their lifetime. The Hillock stands at 1.3km above sea level with cloud cover almost all the time(all the times i was there,the hill was covered with clouds). Plan well before the trek.
Bus route:
Hebbal>Yelahanka police station>Chikaballapur(Only Private buses are available)>Chikaballapur>Skandagiri(only autos are available at night)
Things to carry:
Route to Skandagiri:
Route 1.Through vegetation and rocks and a pretty easy and straight forward(only good for climbing up)
Route 2: Thorugh the face of the hill..pretty much rock and nothing to hold on to( Only for climbing down)
Introduction:
Well this was a much better planned trek than my first one and it was with my college friends. A lot of people were interested in the beginning but eventually a lot dropped out and finally there four. They are
1. Maheen(Me!!)
2. Nishank Vaish(Some1 like me who loves trekking and will join me in my future Escapades :-)...)
3. Nitish Salankey( A quiet but funny and unique guy who raced us to the top)
4. Ujwal Nambiar (A fun guy who after much hustling finally joined the trek and Enjoyed it thoroughly)
We are all college mates and i had talked to them about my first trek to Skandagiri and they really loved what i told them and so we made plans to go for this one on a college holiday. So finally after clear planning we arranged to meet at Hebbal Bus stop. Ujwal and I had to wait for nearly half hour because Nishank and Nitish were late but it did not set us back that much.
9:15 pm
So finally after much waiting and cursing Nishank ;-) we were all ready to start another horrifying journey.
Since i already knew the route accurately we took a bus to Yelahanka police station where we bought all the required snacks and water(This time i was prepared after my mishap last time).
10:00 pm
So after our mini shopping we waited for our bus to Chikkaballapur. Now the thing is all of these guys depended solely on me as i was the only one who had trekked to Skanndagiri before and as we waited for the bus everybody got weary because every bus that came was going everywhere but Chikkaballapur. Nishank and Nitish started to ask questions about whether we would get any bus at all and even i started doubting myself and started to think this was a bad idea but thankfully an INNOVA came to my rescue. The car was going to Chikkaballapur( What a Surprise!!! :-)..)
10:05 pm
We were all happily sitting in the INNOVA and gloating as the driver charged us only 40Rs/Person for such a long drive. We were enjoying the cool Air-Conditioned Vehicle and enjoying the view as the city buzzed pass us and I was ranting about all the mishaps about my last trek and how i would easily get them to the top of the hill(Ya right!!!)
11:15 pm
The driver of the car dropped us exactly at the Chikkaballapur auto stand and we hired an auto for a drop at the foothills for 150Rs. So the auto passed through the place where my last trek had begun and i asked him to stop but the auto driver insisted that this was not where the trek started. I insisted to stop here but Nishank,Ujwal and Nitish insisted and forced me to listen to the auto driver because apparently he knew better. So went a little further and stopped at the temple and the auto driver pointed us to a path from where we could start a trek. This was the same exact path through which i had climbed down in my last Skandagiri trek.
11:30 pm
I was shit scared but did not show it out,i was scared because i had no clue where to start or which way to go cause this path was totally foreign to me as i had climbed the hill through the rocky path which i knew very well. Anyways as we started every1 switched on their torch lights and Nitish was a little scared because of a dog which was following us, so after shooing the dog away our horrifying trek started.
11:45 pm
We walked the path the driver had pointed out and continued on until we found the famous" Way to Hills" rock. After seeing that some of my confidence returned. We walked further and further but found no indication of where to start climbing so we just kept going and going and then finally we found a path which looked an entrance to a hill so we started climbing it.
12:00 am
I was leading the way to the hill which had burnt plants and i had my doubts whether this really was the hill but sadly i could not recollect my last trip because it was really long back so we ventured on and Ujwal insisted that these burnt plants were an indication that people climbed this hill, this explanation was reasonable and so i agreed and went further. One hour later i came to realise that this was the wrong hill and told the guys that we should go back to the foothills. Everyone agreed because it seemed liked the more we climbed this damned hill the more bigger it got and the peak just kept getting further away.
1:00 am
As we were climbing down Nishank comes with a brilliant idea that we could reach Skandagiri by passing through the path connecting this hill and Skandagiri, the path that Nishank claimed was just a Mirage ,, there was no actual path connecting this hill and skandagiri. We still laugh about Nishanks's brilliant plan to this day..LOL!!!.
1:15 am
After a good struggle and losing our way once more we finally reached the foothills of this Damned Hill.
We were exhausted and my confidence at an all time low cause these guys trusted me to take them to Skandagiri. But i wanted to reach the peak no matter what so i came up with idea that we retrace our steps back and find out where we went wrong, so we walked back to the 'Way to Hills' rock.
1:25am
Now the confusion started Nitish insisted that this trip was a lost cause and that we just turn back and go home but thankfully Nishank and Ujwal were in full josh!!! and agreed that we should climb this Hill no matter what. So we retraced our steps and finally found out our mistake, We had misinterpreted another "Way to hills" rock and thought that the rock was pointing to "walk straight and turn Left" when actually what it meant was "Just walk right Up".. The actual path was right next to the rock we just had start climbing up from there.
Seeing the path it all came back to me in an instant because this was the exact place where i kissed the ground after climbing down Skandagiri last time. And hence started our ascent to Skandagiri.
2:00 am
The first half an hour we were all really enthusiastic so we climbed at an amazing pace but then our climb of the previous Damned Hill started getting to us and we were pretty exhausted after our half an hour climb but somehow Nitish was not as exhausted as us. After this point we climbed for 10 mins after which we took a 5 minute rest , this continued till we reached the peak. In the midst of all this Nitish was not happy with our pace so he ventured on further with another group of people who were in front of us and reached the peak a good 20 mins before us. Actually the truth was Nithish was in better shape than all of us. In the meantime we were cursing Nitish because we had no clue where he was, at one point we actually thought he was dead because no matter how loudly we called his name he never replied. So we just gave up and hoped for the best.
3:30am
The peak seemed near us and the three of us climbed slowly but steadily and by this point the hill was covered in fog and the view was just awesome and we took a good 15 mins rest and enjoyed the view before going further.Then suddenly out of nowhere Ujwal gets a call from Nitish saying that he had reached the peak safely and he was boasting that he was the first one to reach there,apparently he had over taken the group ahead of us too. And it is quite surprising that their cellphones got a good signal at a such a remote place
4:00 am
We finally reached the peak and there was Nitish shouting our names and guiding us to where he was, Nishank was cursing him pretty bad in Hindi for leaving us and venturing further but we were all too happy to be angry at any one so we just forgot the whole ordeal and enjoyed the view. There was good amount of fog not very thick but good enough that we could see the path of the light from our torches through the fog. We were all happy and overjoyed and loved the breathtaking view from the peak.
4:15 am
After exploring every nook and corner of the peak we decided to take the much needed rest inside the temple. So we laid out the bed sheets and took a small nap. Ujwal ji must have been very tired because when he was sleeping i could hear him snoring a little hee hee(He is going to kill me for writing this ;-)...). So we slept for about half an half an hour and then we were just ranting on about how AWESOME we were for climbing Skandagiri despite our mishap in the beginning of the trek. Seriously speaking even to this day we all feel very proud that we did not give up after failing miserably in the beginning of the trek by climbing the "DAMNED HILL".
5:00am-6:00am
Our spirits we at an all time high after conquering Skandagiri and the breathtaking view of the Sunrise which was unfolding in front of us only contributed to it. Even for me this was a first time experience because in my previous trek to Skandagiri the whole hill was covered in fog. Who would have though that a simple phenomenon of the Sun rising could be so beautiful ,it was nature at its best and we were all completely AWESTRUCK by it. The next an hour or so was spent in taking pictures, talking with the other group which was among us and filling our stomach with food and water before reaching the foothills.
A famous hill known for its night trek and breathtaking views, an awesome trek which every one should go at least once in their lifetime. The Hillock stands at 1.3km above sea level with cloud cover almost all the time(all the times i was there,the hill was covered with clouds). Plan well before the trek.
Bus route:
Hebbal>Yelahanka police station>Chikaballapur(Only Private buses are available)>Chikaballapur>Skandagiri(only autos are available at night)
Things to carry:
- 1.5 litres of water per person nothing lesser(VERY IMPORTANT)
- Sufficient amount of snacks like bread-jam,Kur-Kure,Biscuits..etc(You can buy this at the bakery near the Yelahanka Poilice Station Bus Stop)
- Good Thermal wear(Sweater,Jerkin,Cardigan,etc..)
- Blanket to cover yourself from the cold winds once you reach the top
- A good torch light(i would advise the LED EVEREADY torch light Rs.120 which is very powerful)
- Coolers to cover your eyes from the blazing Sun when you climb down
- Cotton to cover your ears from the cold,this was very helpful on my 2nd Skandagiri Trip.
- Good Sturdy Canvas Shoes pls do not wear Sneakers
- A small knife(just in case you need it)
- A lighter and kerosene to start your own bonfire(you can collect dry sticks as you climb up)
- A sleeping bag if you need one http://www.rentongo.com/ProductDetails.php?prodno=185&pg=Adventure%20Gear&pgg=68
Route to Skandagiri:
Route 1.Through vegetation and rocks and a pretty easy and straight forward(only good for climbing up)
Route 2: Thorugh the face of the hill..pretty much rock and nothing to hold on to( Only for climbing down)
Introduction:
Well this was a much better planned trek than my first one and it was with my college friends. A lot of people were interested in the beginning but eventually a lot dropped out and finally there four. They are
1. Maheen(Me!!)
2. Nishank Vaish(Some1 like me who loves trekking and will join me in my future Escapades :-)...)
3. Nitish Salankey( A quiet but funny and unique guy who raced us to the top)
4. Ujwal Nambiar (A fun guy who after much hustling finally joined the trek and Enjoyed it thoroughly)
We are all college mates and i had talked to them about my first trek to Skandagiri and they really loved what i told them and so we made plans to go for this one on a college holiday. So finally after clear planning we arranged to meet at Hebbal Bus stop. Ujwal and I had to wait for nearly half hour because Nishank and Nitish were late but it did not set us back that much.
9:15 pm
So finally after much waiting and cursing Nishank ;-) we were all ready to start another horrifying journey.
Since i already knew the route accurately we took a bus to Yelahanka police station where we bought all the required snacks and water(This time i was prepared after my mishap last time).
10:00 pm
So after our mini shopping we waited for our bus to Chikkaballapur. Now the thing is all of these guys depended solely on me as i was the only one who had trekked to Skanndagiri before and as we waited for the bus everybody got weary because every bus that came was going everywhere but Chikkaballapur. Nishank and Nitish started to ask questions about whether we would get any bus at all and even i started doubting myself and started to think this was a bad idea but thankfully an INNOVA came to my rescue. The car was going to Chikkaballapur( What a Surprise!!! :-)..)
10:05 pm
We were all happily sitting in the INNOVA and gloating as the driver charged us only 40Rs/Person for such a long drive. We were enjoying the cool Air-Conditioned Vehicle and enjoying the view as the city buzzed pass us and I was ranting about all the mishaps about my last trek and how i would easily get them to the top of the hill(Ya right!!!)
11:15 pm
The driver of the car dropped us exactly at the Chikkaballapur auto stand and we hired an auto for a drop at the foothills for 150Rs. So the auto passed through the place where my last trek had begun and i asked him to stop but the auto driver insisted that this was not where the trek started. I insisted to stop here but Nishank,Ujwal and Nitish insisted and forced me to listen to the auto driver because apparently he knew better. So went a little further and stopped at the temple and the auto driver pointed us to a path from where we could start a trek. This was the same exact path through which i had climbed down in my last Skandagiri trek.
11:30 pm
I was shit scared but did not show it out,i was scared because i had no clue where to start or which way to go cause this path was totally foreign to me as i had climbed the hill through the rocky path which i knew very well. Anyways as we started every1 switched on their torch lights and Nitish was a little scared because of a dog which was following us, so after shooing the dog away our horrifying trek started.
11:45 pm
We walked the path the driver had pointed out and continued on until we found the famous" Way to Hills" rock. After seeing that some of my confidence returned. We walked further and further but found no indication of where to start climbing so we just kept going and going and then finally we found a path which looked an entrance to a hill so we started climbing it.
12:00 am
I was leading the way to the hill which had burnt plants and i had my doubts whether this really was the hill but sadly i could not recollect my last trip because it was really long back so we ventured on and Ujwal insisted that these burnt plants were an indication that people climbed this hill, this explanation was reasonable and so i agreed and went further. One hour later i came to realise that this was the wrong hill and told the guys that we should go back to the foothills. Everyone agreed because it seemed liked the more we climbed this damned hill the more bigger it got and the peak just kept getting further away.
1:00 am
As we were climbing down Nishank comes with a brilliant idea that we could reach Skandagiri by passing through the path connecting this hill and Skandagiri, the path that Nishank claimed was just a Mirage ,, there was no actual path connecting this hill and skandagiri. We still laugh about Nishanks's brilliant plan to this day..LOL!!!.
1:15 am
After a good struggle and losing our way once more we finally reached the foothills of this Damned Hill.
We were exhausted and my confidence at an all time low cause these guys trusted me to take them to Skandagiri. But i wanted to reach the peak no matter what so i came up with idea that we retrace our steps back and find out where we went wrong, so we walked back to the 'Way to Hills' rock.
1:25am
Now the confusion started Nitish insisted that this trip was a lost cause and that we just turn back and go home but thankfully Nishank and Ujwal were in full josh!!! and agreed that we should climb this Hill no matter what. So we retraced our steps and finally found out our mistake, We had misinterpreted another "Way to hills" rock and thought that the rock was pointing to "walk straight and turn Left" when actually what it meant was "Just walk right Up".. The actual path was right next to the rock we just had start climbing up from there.
Seeing the path it all came back to me in an instant because this was the exact place where i kissed the ground after climbing down Skandagiri last time. And hence started our ascent to Skandagiri.
2:00 am
The first half an hour we were all really enthusiastic so we climbed at an amazing pace but then our climb of the previous Damned Hill started getting to us and we were pretty exhausted after our half an hour climb but somehow Nitish was not as exhausted as us. After this point we climbed for 10 mins after which we took a 5 minute rest , this continued till we reached the peak. In the midst of all this Nitish was not happy with our pace so he ventured on further with another group of people who were in front of us and reached the peak a good 20 mins before us. Actually the truth was Nithish was in better shape than all of us. In the meantime we were cursing Nitish because we had no clue where he was, at one point we actually thought he was dead because no matter how loudly we called his name he never replied. So we just gave up and hoped for the best.
3:30am
The peak seemed near us and the three of us climbed slowly but steadily and by this point the hill was covered in fog and the view was just awesome and we took a good 15 mins rest and enjoyed the view before going further.Then suddenly out of nowhere Ujwal gets a call from Nitish saying that he had reached the peak safely and he was boasting that he was the first one to reach there,apparently he had over taken the group ahead of us too. And it is quite surprising that their cellphones got a good signal at a such a remote place
4:00 am
We finally reached the peak and there was Nitish shouting our names and guiding us to where he was, Nishank was cursing him pretty bad in Hindi for leaving us and venturing further but we were all too happy to be angry at any one so we just forgot the whole ordeal and enjoyed the view. There was good amount of fog not very thick but good enough that we could see the path of the light from our torches through the fog. We were all happy and overjoyed and loved the breathtaking view from the peak.
4:15 am
After exploring every nook and corner of the peak we decided to take the much needed rest inside the temple. So we laid out the bed sheets and took a small nap. Ujwal ji must have been very tired because when he was sleeping i could hear him snoring a little hee hee(He is going to kill me for writing this ;-)...). So we slept for about half an half an hour and then we were just ranting on about how AWESOME we were for climbing Skandagiri despite our mishap in the beginning of the trek. Seriously speaking even to this day we all feel very proud that we did not give up after failing miserably in the beginning of the trek by climbing the "DAMNED HILL".
5:00am-6:00am
Our spirits we at an all time high after conquering Skandagiri and the breathtaking view of the Sunrise which was unfolding in front of us only contributed to it. Even for me this was a first time experience because in my previous trek to Skandagiri the whole hill was covered in fog. Who would have though that a simple phenomenon of the Sun rising could be so beautiful ,it was nature at its best and we were all completely AWESTRUCK by it. The next an hour or so was spent in taking pictures, talking with the other group which was among us and filling our stomach with food and water before reaching the foothills.
6:15am-7:44am
We contemplated among ourselves about which route to take to climb
down the hill. After searching around for a little while i found out Route 2. This was the route through which i climbed up in my previous trip and it is a pretty easy route to climb down if you have a good sense of balance and good shoes to help you out or else please do not take up this route. So after explaining this to the group we went forward. Route 2 has one tricky part which is kinda tough to get through. There is place in the route ,where to get across from one point to another you have got to literally hug the rock and move step by step because even the foothold is slippery and small, if you look back while doing this you will notice that behind you there is a good 100 feet drop, so one wrong move and your pretty much screwed. I had made it through this treacherous path last time and was confident i could do it but was not sure whether i should put my group through this but we had no choice so we decided to cross it. I was the first in the line so i crossed the path slowly but steadily and then asked Nishank(who was next in line) to follow me but after looking at the path he ran back saying, "I cant do this let's go through the other route". For a moment everybody was a little
tensed but then Ujwal being courageous and all crossed the path without much
drama and later Nitish and Nishank(still a little jittery) crossed the path
successfully. After this the route was pretty easy and can be done by anyone if
they are careful about every step they take, the only drawback was the hot sun blazing down at us.
8:00pm-8:30pm
We reached the foothills safe and sound with all our bones intact but our ligaments totally screwed. After walking for a few mins we came across some townsfolk who were very helpful and gave us a lift till the bus stop and after that we immediately got a bus to Bangalore and reached home safely. I would later come to know that each of us slept for about 14 hours after reaching home..LOL!!! Altogether it was one AWESOME EXPERIENCE!!!!
Pics:
Conclusion:
I thank Nishank Vaish, Ujwal Nambiar and Nitish Salankey for making this trip a memorable experience.
8:00pm-8:30pm
We reached the foothills safe and sound with all our bones intact but our ligaments totally screwed. After walking for a few mins we came across some townsfolk who were very helpful and gave us a lift till the bus stop and after that we immediately got a bus to Bangalore and reached home safely. I would later come to know that each of us slept for about 14 hours after reaching home..LOL!!! Altogether it was one AWESOME EXPERIENCE!!!!
Pics:
 |
| Nitish deep in thought |
 |
| Nishank Sun bathing...LOL |
 |
| Nishank Again |
Conclusion:
I thank Nishank Vaish, Ujwal Nambiar and Nitish Salankey for making this trip a memorable experience.
