Rappelling - A Thrilling Experience
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"In the month of January, there will be a trek to Dhak-Bahiri. It includes rappelling. Will you be interested?" One day morning I received this message on whatsapp messenger from a friend.
I replied, "Not sure. I will let you know."
I was kinda busy in office work and this message disturbed me a bit. An invitation for a trek to an unknown place. I was thinking whether I should go or not? Then I discussed with parents and decided to go. I had applied for the leave and it got sanctioned. I had called Giridarshan trekking club, Pune and booked my seat. Everything was happening just like destiny.
Rappelling, does it mean getting down from top of a huge rock patch with the help of a rope? Will I be able to do it being afraid of heights and having no previous experience? Will I fall? Will it be safe? There were many questions and answers were yet to come.
We began our journey from Pune at 11 PM on Friday and reached Jambhavali village at 1:15 AM. It was very cold and we decided of camp fire. I had never seen such moonlight in a metro city. I could even see my shadow clearly in such moonlight of 6th day after full moon. We were enjoying Camp fire with songs. Later at 3 am, we went to sleep and got up early in the morning. Our mentor had asked to prepare ourselves for the trek. And he suggested us to take only those things which are needed in few bags as we had to climb the rocks. We had breakfast, introduced ourselves and started walking towards the caves.
We walked through the trees and reached a place where we had to get down through narrow rocks. With the help of ropes and knots we came down one after the other. Two of Giridarshan's members went ahead of us for making rock climbing and rappelling preparations. They have aligned ropes on the rocks with the help of anchors. I reached the rock climbing starting point. One of our mentors tied a rope tight around my waist and attached a carabiner. He hanged the carabiner to the aligned rope and asked me to walk normally. I had seen him with a question and tension on my face. He said, "Just walk normally, lean towards rocks, look at gaps in rocks where you can put your feet and go ahead. In the meantime, untie the carabiner at anchor and tie to next rope aligned on rocks."
I nodded my head and started walking. There was only one thing in my mind, 'I have to reach the caves no matter what happens, without falling.' I started looking for rock gaps where I can put my feet and walk further. I was also guiding my friends who were after myself for the road through those rocks. During rock climbing, one should look for the support of steady rocks. The one should look for rock gaps where he can put the feet or hold by hand and pull himself up. We used same way and climbed slowly. When I reached the caves, I felt proud for this adventure. But one more was yet to come and that was rappelling.
Our mentors gave us instructions about our posture during rappelling. They have given us the information about harness, carabiner, ropes etc. Many of us were rappelling for the first time. As anyone is getting ready and going to rappel down, we were cheering up and clicking the photographs.
And now, it was my time. One of our mentors tied harness around my body. He hanged 8 figure descender and carabiner to the harness on front side and locked them tight. He gave me a helmet to wear and hand gloves. I started shivering because of height. There were two ropes attached to the carabiner and 8 figure descender. I was having one rope in my hand and the other rope was in a mentor's hand. My rope was helping me to rappel down whereas mentor's rope was to control my movement during rappelling.
During rappelling, one must keep his knees straight, keep distance between both legs, left hand should be on front side and right hand should be on back side both holding the rope. Using left hand you can release the rope and using right hand you can control it. Until and unless you make the rope loose by right hand, you will not be able to release it using left hand and rappel down. You should lean backwards and be at 90 degrees to the rocks. No need to worry as 95% of your weight is taken care by harness so you won't fall.
I listened to every instruction but still fear took over my mind. I could hardly manage to keep my knees straight. When I lost control, I shouted as "I lost control" and mentor in cave held my rope tight. I was steady in the air. I started to come down slowly and reached the end. The mentor downstairs caught the rope and untied harness. He made me free from all these equipments and asked me to go to the caves downstairs where others were sitting. I was shivering all the time. First time adventure was a thrilling experience. I rapplled for 80 feet successfully and wasn't able to believe it. We returned to the base, had lunch and started our journey back to Pune.
I don't know who carried what at the end but I carried lessons with me from this trek. The lessons are "no matter what happens stand like rock", "fear is a good thing but let it not control your mind" and "take risks and conquer your fears".
This was a short story of my first adventure. Would you like to share yours?
Sunit S. Pendse
14th January 2015
sunitpendse.blogspot.com
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"In the month of January, there will be a trek to Dhak-Bahiri. It includes rappelling. Will you be interested?" One day morning I received this message on whatsapp messenger from a friend.
I replied, "Not sure. I will let you know."
I was kinda busy in office work and this message disturbed me a bit. An invitation for a trek to an unknown place. I was thinking whether I should go or not? Then I discussed with parents and decided to go. I had applied for the leave and it got sanctioned. I had called Giridarshan trekking club, Pune and booked my seat. Everything was happening just like destiny.
Rappelling, does it mean getting down from top of a huge rock patch with the help of a rope? Will I be able to do it being afraid of heights and having no previous experience? Will I fall? Will it be safe? There were many questions and answers were yet to come.
We began our journey from Pune at 11 PM on Friday and reached Jambhavali village at 1:15 AM. It was very cold and we decided of camp fire. I had never seen such moonlight in a metro city. I could even see my shadow clearly in such moonlight of 6th day after full moon. We were enjoying Camp fire with songs. Later at 3 am, we went to sleep and got up early in the morning. Our mentor had asked to prepare ourselves for the trek. And he suggested us to take only those things which are needed in few bags as we had to climb the rocks. We had breakfast, introduced ourselves and started walking towards the caves.
We walked through the trees and reached a place where we had to get down through narrow rocks. With the help of ropes and knots we came down one after the other. Two of Giridarshan's members went ahead of us for making rock climbing and rappelling preparations. They have aligned ropes on the rocks with the help of anchors. I reached the rock climbing starting point. One of our mentors tied a rope tight around my waist and attached a carabiner. He hanged the carabiner to the aligned rope and asked me to walk normally. I had seen him with a question and tension on my face. He said, "Just walk normally, lean towards rocks, look at gaps in rocks where you can put your feet and go ahead. In the meantime, untie the carabiner at anchor and tie to next rope aligned on rocks."
I nodded my head and started walking. There was only one thing in my mind, 'I have to reach the caves no matter what happens, without falling.' I started looking for rock gaps where I can put my feet and walk further. I was also guiding my friends who were after myself for the road through those rocks. During rock climbing, one should look for the support of steady rocks. The one should look for rock gaps where he can put the feet or hold by hand and pull himself up. We used same way and climbed slowly. When I reached the caves, I felt proud for this adventure. But one more was yet to come and that was rappelling.
Our mentors gave us instructions about our posture during rappelling. They have given us the information about harness, carabiner, ropes etc. Many of us were rappelling for the first time. As anyone is getting ready and going to rappel down, we were cheering up and clicking the photographs.
And now, it was my time. One of our mentors tied harness around my body. He hanged 8 figure descender and carabiner to the harness on front side and locked them tight. He gave me a helmet to wear and hand gloves. I started shivering because of height. There were two ropes attached to the carabiner and 8 figure descender. I was having one rope in my hand and the other rope was in a mentor's hand. My rope was helping me to rappel down whereas mentor's rope was to control my movement during rappelling.
During rappelling, one must keep his knees straight, keep distance between both legs, left hand should be on front side and right hand should be on back side both holding the rope. Using left hand you can release the rope and using right hand you can control it. Until and unless you make the rope loose by right hand, you will not be able to release it using left hand and rappel down. You should lean backwards and be at 90 degrees to the rocks. No need to worry as 95% of your weight is taken care by harness so you won't fall.
I listened to every instruction but still fear took over my mind. I could hardly manage to keep my knees straight. When I lost control, I shouted as "I lost control" and mentor in cave held my rope tight. I was steady in the air. I started to come down slowly and reached the end. The mentor downstairs caught the rope and untied harness. He made me free from all these equipments and asked me to go to the caves downstairs where others were sitting. I was shivering all the time. First time adventure was a thrilling experience. I rapplled for 80 feet successfully and wasn't able to believe it. We returned to the base, had lunch and started our journey back to Pune.
I don't know who carried what at the end but I carried lessons with me from this trek. The lessons are "no matter what happens stand like rock", "fear is a good thing but let it not control your mind" and "take risks and conquer your fears".
This was a short story of my first adventure. Would you like to share yours?
Sunit S. Pendse
14th January 2015
sunitpendse.blogspot.com
