A Night Trek to Chanderi Pinnacle at Badlapur near Mumbai

It was cold winter weekend to begin when we 14 trekkers including trek leads were to meet at Vangani Railway station on central railway at 11:20 Pm on Saturday night.

Due to rush in train at wee hours one of my trek mates missed to board the train and we all have to wait for him at station. Then from the station we started in a Mahindra Maximo traveler and a Rick to accommodate 14 trekkers in all. After a 25 minutes drive consisting of partly smooth and partly rough drive on muddy road we reached the Chinchvali village at 12:50 PM.

There after equipping ourselves with head lamps and torches, we started on the trail towards Chanderi at around 1 Pm.

It was a chilly night to begin with wherein after a slight ascend of around 20 minutes through dense jungle we reached a plateau. Our plan was to reach caves at the bottom of the Chanderi pinnacle and rest there till morning. Then further our climb on pinnacle in the morning.

The plateau stretches across towards the base of Chanderi and takes around 1 hour of trek on well defined road to reach dried stream. Now from this dried stream begins the actual ascend.

We took 2 short 5 mins breaks each on plateau. In one of the breaks we had an introduction round. The group consisted of experienced trekkers with most having done technical climbs except for one trekker.

It was a moony night with star clearly visible. It was deep silence all around except for a intermittent noise of stone crusher in the quarry below the nearby hill. From plateau we could see 2 towering pinnacles before us; the wedge shaped ' Chanderi' and pencil tipped ' Mhaismaal' separated by a valley.

The group was very quick against expected. After a short descend parallel to stream we took a short break. There was one another group who was also on the same trek. They were ahead on the trek and we could see torches above in the valley ahead of us. After surpassing 2 small waterfalls and steep ascend, we reached the dividing point in the valley known as 'V-point' at around 3:20 AM. The route now forks out in two opposite directions with one towards Chanderi and other towards 'Mhaismaal'. It is the highest point in the valley where other trekking route to Chanderi from Panvel meets at.

After short break at that point we started again. Most of us wanted to reach in cave early and spread there as soon as possible to rest. From here the steep incline begins. At some point the incline is around 80 degree with moderate rock climbing. We also encountered few rock cut steps intermittently. After brisk climb for half an hour we reached the base of pinnacle. From there moving on right for 5 mins on traverse is the cave. We were delighted to see the cave far away for there awaited rest for us. We could see bonfire lit in front of the cave by the other group members. We reached cave by around 4:15 AM.

There we laid out our sleeping bags and rested until 7:30 Am. Then after finishing the morning chores, we had breakfast of Maggi and tea. We all were handed our gears (harness, carabiner with tape sling). By the time we were ready it was about 8:30.

As there was another group (Safar Sahyadri) for the climb, the trek leads of both group coordinated the roping across the bolts. We followed the group in the climb. We had left our sleeping bags and other unessential stuffs in the cave itself and carried only water and energizers with us.

From the cave, one has to traverse around the pinnacle towards east. The traverse has a steep descend patch consisting of scree and loose rocks. One has to be careful on these patches as they are highly exposed. There we had our carabiner in place for safety across safety rope. The way to climb up goes from South Eastern point along the pinnacle.

Sudhir our trek lead was on forefront in the climb. Once the ropes were lined, we started our climb on the rocky structure. The climb is steep at first. There are many rock holds available which makes the climb somewhat easy.

There are also traces of rock cut steps on the climb. However the climb is vertical and highly exposed. We took a short break of 15 mins in one of the small rock cut cave like structures. Hence after steep vertical climb on rocks and scree for 45 minutes we made it to the top.

The top is plain area with exposed laterals. On the northern end is a Statue of Chattrapati Shivaji placed on a concrete structure. There were rumours that this is bronze statue....so heavy....imagine how could people have taken it up there ? With due to respect to Shivaji Maharaj, the statue is of Plastic fibre and hence light weight. However it is coloured perfectly in bronze; so anyone could fall for such a rumour that it is made of bronze...until you tap it with your finger. So for once the rumours regarding the statue being of bronze were false.

After a recharge break we spend almost an hour clicking photos and videos of the panorama seen from the top. One could see Matheran, Kalavantin -prabalgad, Irshalgad to south and Tahuli pinnacle along with Haji Malang on the North.

There after taking group photo along with Statue at around 11 Am, we started our descend back to the cave. Within 45 minutes we were able to reach the southern point. There we filled our bottles in the water in the rock cut tank. The water is very clear and potable. Within 15 more minutes we made it to the cave at around 12:15 pm.

There we rested until the last member along with trek leads reached the cave after dismantling the rope setup. We had a multi cuisine lunch around 1:00. After lunch we decided to rest for an hour and start the further descend at 2:30 pm. The aim was to avoid the heat wave in the afternoon.

There after packing all our stuffs, we started the descend around 2:45 pm. The descend was steep along with scree on few patches. After traversing the 2 small waterfalls and following the white arrow marks we reached the plateau.

In one of the breaks along the plateau, when we looked towards Chanderi, the top of pinnacle It appeared so robust and distant from there. So much so that we could hardly believe that we have traversed such a distance along with the height.

Then after long tiring trek along the plateau and few short breaks, we reached our base village (Chinchvali) at around 5:30 pm.

There at the base village our transporters were waiting for us. After boarding hurriedly in the vehicles, we started towards Vangani railway station to catch 5:50 train to CST; only to missed it. Then after boarding a 6:20 pm train we all parted our ways to our home sweet homes.

To sum up it was a memorable climb on one the toughest Pinnacles of Sahyadri with one of the best and craziest trekkers along leaving us with memories to cherish all our lives.

For more of my treks and traveloques you can check my blog. https://irishpereiraonthego.blogspot.in/

Happy Trekking, Keep Exploring!!!!