Parsik ...........Let The Rains Come

Thanks to my dear younger cousin sister Aasawari. No planning at all was done. Circumstances came together and I got a nice team of 14 people.
Saturday night was a pretty hectic one. I was being bombarded with calls from anyone and everyone. Some where interested in knowing if the trek was on, what was the reporting time and all such questions. The imminent rains were casting a bad shadow on the trek but we were imminent about rocking around.
So in the morning we met at Kalwa station. From there we proceeded towards base of the hills we were going to trek. I was pleased as most of the time the number of members in the team doesn’t exceed 10 so having 14 people with me was a nice experience. We had quite a few amateurs with us. We started the trek at around 9am. I had decided to take the regular route due the presence of amateurs. But I had no idea that this regular route would not be so “regular” anymore. The way was through huge grass and due to it the route was not so visible. We were moving ahead by trial and error method. Once we reached the groove well known to us we moved confidently. The route was nothing as I had expected it to be. It was very slippery and a small stream of water was flowing from here. We had all the muck on our feet. Tej was opening the route for around 30 minutes. But later I had to call him back to support the newcomers. So it was aniket another newcomer opening the route now! He was pretty excited and Prasad was encouraging him and guiding him in the way. I was helping Aasawari climb. She was an amateur and was really having a very hard time. She once pulled Tej down when he was supporting her! The rocks were pretty unstable and getting a grip was very difficult. Our feet were almost buried in the muck at every step. We were climbing the groove for over an hour now and still had done 70% of it. This patch is usually done in around 45 minutes by us. Having a very bad time we were moving up and ahead but at snails pace. Soon Prasad was called back too. He had almost gone the complete distance and came back just to help others. So after struggling through this patch for around an hour and half we reached the top! Once here, everyone was checking the bruises or the damage their body had taken.
Over here the weather was awesome. A strong wind was blowing and a light drizzle had started. We first of all cleaned the muck of our soles for a better grip from here on. Then it was time for photo session. Clicked some nice photographs here. Then we climbed the antenna over here. These are the reflectors atop the hill. Atop them it was still a nice feeling. Soon other guys joined us and then it was howling going up there. After spending some time here we moved towards the main destination- the Parsik Pinnacle. Now for sometime there was no climb at all. We were moving on huge carpets of green. A stroll of around 20 minutes took us to the waterfall which we were going to enjoy later on in the trek. After spending a couple of minutes here we started our move towards the base of the pinnacle. The way over here was a bit difficult. The way was slippery and we had to be extra careful. Slow and steadily we reached the base in another half an hour.
Now the huge pinnacle rock was ahead in front of us. As if it was balanced on the edge. It gave us a nice stiff challenge. The wind was pretty strong now. Half of us didn’t believe that we were going to climb this. Tej was asking us that should we really do it. I was hell bent on doing this. So a small group was formed who would take the pinnacle. It was I, Tej, Prasad, Mayur, AJ, Rohan, Manali, Harshada and Sukhada.
So we nine people kept our bags with others and moved towards the pinnacle. We had small photo session here too. Then we divided ourselves into groups of two and one group of three. Tej wanted to lead with Rohan. I would be covering them with AJ. Once Rohan and AJ are done we would bring the other guys up. So making this rough strategy we made the move. Tej quickly negotiated the first and second patch. From here the going got difficult and Rohan who was backing Tej nicely had some difficulties. I was covering him up and so with some suggestions from he went up fine. Now it was the dreaded patch. There is just one hold in here and it was difficult with the air and rains. Tej made his way steadily up this patch. Once he was up he helped Rohan through that patch. Mean while I helped AJ reach this point and then went back to bring Mayur and Manali. When I reached back to the third patch with Mayur and Manali AJ was already besides Rohan and Tej. Now it was time for Mayur to go. He too crossed over and reached the base of the dreaded patch. Out here the velocity of wind had increased. My t shirt had fluffed up like a hot air balloon. Mayur had some problems and decided to call it a day. After that conditions worsened. Rain gods were attacking us water bullets. In these conditions Mayur, Manali, Harshada and Sukhada decided to go back. So it was me and Prasad who were left. Mayur was round the corner providing moral support. Now it was me who was on the rocks. The raindrops were hitting my face like small pebbles. The wind wasn’t letting me open an eye. It was horrific conditions up there. So I stayed as it for sometime-waiting for the rains to drain a bit and winds to reduce. After some moments I had conditions near about to what I wanted but not exact. So I took my chance and moved. I had two under holds on the rock above and one hold near my feet. This meant my one leg had no hold to hold on to. The hold that Tej and others had used while climbing up was now filled with water due to the rain. So it was out of question. So keeping a strong hold on the three points which I had I pulled up on the upper holds and made some way for the free leg to get in the previous hold and other leg in a higher hold. In this manner I crossed the dreaded patch. Following me Prasad too tired but again the rains lashed him. In next ten minutes he was through and we were on the pinnacle! We were screaming our throats off. Wind was pushing us down the valley. It had great force. We sat down and clicked some pictures. Listened to songs like “Shoor amhi sardar amhala kaay kunachi bhiti” and started our move down. If climbing up was bad then climbing down was worse. This was the ultimate test of what I call “calm and composure”. After carefully and safely making our way back to were everyone was waiting we heaved a sigh of relief. There were mixed reactions coming up. Some were thank full that they were alive while some people who hadn’t been there wanted to have a go. Ad mist all this we started moving towards our next place to visit-the “Shiv mandir”.
The way was through dense forest and it was raining very heavily. We were having fun in this situation. There was no climb just plain walking now. Jokes were being cracked and comments passed on them. During all this we missed the turn we were supposed to take and ended up at a dead end. So now it was time for some customized road making. Tej as usual the expert in this job was opening. The plantation was so thick that we couldn’t see the guy moving in front of us. We were mocking Tej that we were playing hide and seek due to him. This patch lasted for some 15 minutes. Then we were on the right road. From here, we made it to the temple in 15 minutes. It was serene over here. We said our prayers and moved on towards the spot were we were supposed to have our lunch. After reaching this spot and having lunch we moved towards the next spot.
This is the spot everyone was waiting to see as I had an awesome photograph as my display picture in various networking sites. That photo was clicked on this spot. During this part everyone was dead tired. But still we were soldering on-never back down. So when we reached the spot it was photos galore. Everyone was having pictures and Tej was the official photographer. Having done with a huge photo session here we started descending towards the waterfall.
Waterfall was the place which everyone was waiting for. While climbing down the route was pretty steep and slippery due to the rains. Using some “ideas” we safely reached down in about 45 minutes. This was the road we had traveled while going towards the pinnacle. But alas our luck ran out. When we reached this spot there were a huge group already present out there. So it was decided to call it quits as we had some girls in our group. We showed our backs to the waterfall and moved towards our descending route. Still as I said our luck had run out for the day. We again headed into a spot which we thought was a dead end. Out here we faced a small but strong stream surrounded by dense trees. We could not see the path it was going by. The route seemed impossible. But going back to the route by which we had climbed would cost us an extra hour. I wanted to get the group back to ground zero before sunset. And again the route which we had climbed up gave us a hard time while climbing up so climbing down it would have been a nightmare. So I decided to take a chance and try this route. Tej joined me and we checked the route going down for around 200 meters. It seemed feasible. The only problem was the dense trees around. So while coming back we tried leveling out some trees so that the route could be made more “walk able”. I was drawing flak from all sides for taking this route but still with support from Tej I decided to stick to my decision. Soon we were climbing down a damn waterfall. This trek had thrown some awesome surprises and this was one of it. I was helping Aasawari who was having a hard time going through the paces. AJ was leading now with Abhishek and Aniket. He was making way by flattening some grass. This was one of the most exciting feelings I have had during various treks. After moving down steadily through this waterfall we reached ground by 4:30pm. It took us an amazing 1 and half hour to negotiate this part.
Thus our Parsik sojourn came to an end. I had some of the most beautiful experiences during this trek. We faced many difficulties and barriers but still came out stronger than those barriers. The team spirit rocked and was a major factor helping us in successful completion of this trek.