I have been to many expeditions into the deep jungles with and on to the mountains from the past 2 months. Of course, with all the needed Safety gear and expertise. I want to share one of the adventurous and toughest of all the treks and summits I completed till now. The Massive Lingana Fort Summit – The dream of every trekker to do in Sahyadri (Western Ghats range in Maharashtra)
Background of our destination:
Lingana is a massive pinnacle on the mainline of the Sahyadris, It is in the Mahad Taluka of Raigad district. It takes its name from its shape which is like a linga (Shivling). It is 2969 feet high with an ascent of four miles, the first half is easy to climb while the second is difficult. Its rock cut steps have been destroyed and the fort is almost completely inaccessible. The top of the fortified rock is 2500 feet square. No fortifications or buildings remain but there are traces of a grain store and some cisterns.
Day 1: (25th December 2020)
Every possible thought (Scary & Excited) is hitting my mind, I am about to do the first summit to the pinnacle which involves complete technical climbing with scary ridges & deep gorges.
Between these thoughts two thing are driving me hard.
Sahyadris: Even with the name I feel the strong bond.
Pune: If Mumbai is called city of dreams, I would call Pune the city of love, it’s the first time in my life I realized that one can even fall in love with the place.
With all the excitement & fears started to Pune from Hyderabad.
Day 2: (26th December 2020)
At 2 PM me and my friend started from Pune (Hadapsar) on bike and reached to Mohari (base village for Lingana trek) by 7 PM.
We met with our trekking group in one of the villager’s home and we had dinner then retired for that day early (8 30 PM).
Day 3: (D Day)
We woke up at 2 AM got freshen up, had breakfast and wore the tape sling (Safety gear) then started our trek towards the fort at 3 AM
Started a simple trek of one hour towards Rai-Ling Plateau. Guided by the local villager and our trek leader.
By 4 AM reach Rai-Ling Plateau & start descending the Boratyachi Naal for next One Hour.
One must be very careful while descending on this trail as we will be stepping on the loose rock which will roll down the path if the slightest of the force is exerted from the X or Z Directions.
Then we took a traverse to Rai-Ling Plateau
Traverse: Instead of ascending & descending the mountain to reach the other end, one has to pass the mountain edge to visualize it you are walking on the narrow edge which has enough space to place one feet at a moment with mountain on one end and the 1000 – 1500 feet deep gorge on your other end.
As it is December even at 4 AM we cannot see the depth of gorge in the darkness and our head torches are focused only our forward path but still the sound of the air echoing from that depth our mind able to assess the depth of gorge and made me numb for 2 minutes due to the shock!
Throughout the traverse our tape sling and the rope bolted for safety are intact through the carabiner
Traverse to Rai-Ling Plateau
Followed by some rock patches and grave steeps we reached to the base of The Massive Lingana Pinnacle by 5 30 AM, still we are at the mercy of the head torches.
We started climbing Lingana at 6 AM after wearing the harness, from here the inclination of terrain is 80 – 90 degrees and our tape sling is always attached to the rope through the carabiner.
We started the top rope climbing (we will climb the mountain by taking the support of rock as well the rope) this is the breathtaking experience. But mind you the gorge is still there at the back of us and we are completely exposed as we are facing the mountain while climbing and experiencing the sunrise during climb, we almost forgot about the gorge at our back and not to by this time we got habituated to the terrain and the heights.
Top Rope Climbing:
By 7 30 AM we have completed 450 feet rock climbing we reached small cave and experienced the breathtaking early morning views from the top of the mountain. We filled our water bottles from the cistern.
We started to climb the second half of the fort which is 550 feet, and this is tougher than the first 450 feet due to tough rock patches and the overhang climbs which requires belay rope climbing by 10 AM we reached the peak and successfully completed the Lingana Summit.
We have taken some pictures at the top with Raigad and Kokandiva in the background.
We started descending the first half of the fort manually at some rock patches and rappelled down at some points with the help of harness, Mittens and descender.
Descending is more difficult and scarier than climbing psychologically, but once we start rappelling, we will feel 100% safe and confident.
Rappelling
We reached the cave and then had lunch in the cave and filled our water bottles. Then started to rappel the second half by 12:30 PM.
Followed by the manual descending and 350 feet rappelling reached the base of the Lingana fort by 3 PM and started towards the Mohari village, now during traverse we can see the open gorge but now we felt more comfortable with terrain and moved fast while traversing.
By 5 PM we reached the villager’s home and got freshen up and had dinner then slept at 7 PM most of our teammates started to their destinations but me and my friend decided to rest in the village for that night, started to Pune on the next day morning.
Lingana Summit is the lifetime experience, after this summit I became so confident that the heights don’t scare me anymore.
Notes from BCF:
We organize this trip very often through out the year. You can follow us on Instagram for regular updates. Insta ID –bcf.official. For more info on BCF upcoming events visit us here. About logo you can read here.
Article by Uday Kiran. Thanks a lot to Uday for penning down your experiences from the event. You can follow Uday on Instagram – mountain_vegabond
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