Kalakrai Pinnacle Rock Climbing and Rappeling - Feb 20, 2021

by Samir - Sunday, February 21, 2021

Kalakrai Pinnacle is a jagged rock thumb shooting up near Dhak Bahiri Caves, a very famous tourist location near Lonavla.

Dhak Bahiri caves in the Sahyadri hill range, situated near the village Jambhavali off village-Malavali near Lonavla. It was used by pilgrims and sages for the pilgrimage to the goddess Bahiri.

Kalakrai Pinnacle

We decided to go with The Alpinist Team led by Bhagwan Chawale, a guy who has summited Mt. Everest twice.

We started by meeting at 5 am at Chandni Chowk, Pune. We drove towards Kamshet on the old Pune Mumbai highway and then took a right turn towards Jambhavali. We reached Jambhavali (about 67 km from Pune) around 6.30 am.

We had 18 members in the team, with 5 people from The Alpinist.

Narayanan Iyer, Sahil, Keith Pinto, Sumeet, Om, Prasad Nagarkar, Bhagwan Chawale, Komal, Samir Khare, Ananya Dass, Rohan, Mahendra Dhavade, Vipul Dhavade, Anu Palnitkar, Samir Palnitkar, Anand Tekawade, Akshay Shelar.

The walk from Jambhavali to the bottom of Dhak fort (where our climb began) was about 56 mins. It was quite cool in the morning and the scenery stunning.

At the bottom of Dhak fort we waited for 30-45 mins for the Alpinist team to do the preparations, attach the ropes and hooks. We started rock climbing at about 7.30 am. The total climb according to my Garmin was about 260 ft in 3 major stages.

We started climbing to reach Station 1. It was a straight up rock face. Typically, you are supposed to use the handgrip in rock crevices along with leg strength. But Anu and I are not really rock climbers. So we had to use the ropes set up by the Alpinist team. It still took a lot of arm strength, but we did take advantage of the ropes. The Alpinist team has a fetish for safety. We were always harnessed to a rope, so there was never any danger of a big fall.

To get to Station 1, it was tough and scary to find a grip in the rocks. Our hands and legs were shaking from the adrenalin rush as we reached Station 1. We had to sit down after we reached Station 1.

This is a video of me climbing to Station 1. It is a short climb but it can get quite challenging.

This is a photo of the team after it reached Station 1. Station 1 to Station 2 was a short climb, getting ready for the scary traverse.

The journey from Station 2 to Station 3 was the hardest. It is an angular traverse as we went from the mountain facing Station 2 to the valley facing Station 3. It is up and behind and as we did the traverse, it was a 2,500 ft drop to our right. Though we were completely harnessed and we had a top belay as additional safety, it was still scary to not get a completely firm grip on the rock. This was the hardest and the scariest patch of the climb.

The picture below shows the point at Station 2 where we started to climb towards Station 3. This is the hardest part of the climb. Heart is pumping, mind is crazy scared about the 2,500 ft drop to the right and there is no easy grip on the rock to the left.

Here is a video of how Anu climbed during this stage. She had initial trouble hoisting herself up the rock patch. The situation that she faced was the situation for almost 80% of the climbers including me.

She did get to Station 3 strongly, but her hands and legs were shaking badly when she reached. This is what happened to me as well. We made it to Station 2. This was the scariest and the most challenging part of the climb. Our heart was beating at 180 beats per minute.

Station 3 to Summit was the last part of the climb, but it was relatively easier compared to the earlier two stages. There was a lot of grip on the rocks in this section. Though there was a 2,500 ft cliff below us, it was simpler. Both Anu and I made it to the summit relatively intact, we have some cuts on fingers and Anu had a small bruise, but nothing major. We got to the summit around 10 am.

The summit of the pinnacle was a very small place with space for about 10 people. It was extremely windy at the top. Even while sitting, it was mandatory for us to be harnessed to the rope. See Dhak fort in the background.

Everyone finished summiting at around 11.00 am.

Then we had to rappel 260 ft down to the base where we had started climbing. Rock climbing and rappelling is a slow process. Everyone has to go up or down one by one and making sure that harnesses are in place. As a result, the first person started rappelling down at 11.00 am and everyone finished by about 1 pm.

Anu was in top form rappelling down. She was not scared because we had done rappelling a couple of times before.

Anu reached the base before I did. She took a video of me rappelling down. I was also not as scared coming down. I was able to manage the downward rappelling just fine.

When we reached the base, we realized that monkeys had opened up all our bags that we had left at the base of the pinnacle and eaten our food. For a couple of the team members, the monkeys had also picked up the mobile phone, power bank, shoes and thrown them somewhere in the jungle. The monkeys were quite aggressive.

After searching for the mobile phone and power bank for about 30 mins, we decided to abandon the search and started our walk back to Jambhavali. We reached Jambhavali village by 3.30 pm. We had our lunch of Bhakri, Kobi Bhaji and Batata Rassa. We had a small celebratory session and group picture.

We started for Pune at around 4.30 pm and reached home by about 6.30 pm. It was a challenging, scary, yet exhilarating trip.

While it was scary, the Alpinist team made sure that our climb and rappelling was totally safe. We were harnessed all the time and we had a backup belay holding us up during the climb and the rappelling. Kudos the team!