Gadgada Trek Experience:

Every time I trek, I find something special. This was true for Gadgada trek as well. This trek was a fun to me with the added flavors like an adventure and thrill. It was my first baby step towards climbing any summit with the proper equipments like harness, rope, carabiners, tapes sling.

On 27^th October 2013, Trekshitiz had organized a trek to Gadgada, in Amboli range. I was lucky enough to join this trek, as I was in the waiting list. Finally a conformation call was received from Minal Joshi (Former Trek leader). I am Thankful to her.

This was my first ever climbing experience. The experience was amazing. Initially a fear thought had reached my mind, but seeing a young man in his sixties ascending, fear thought soon ceased off. Reaching top of the fort, I was wondering how I reached it, without any fear. The only reason could be the first man. In middle of my climb a small incident happened, when Sanjay Sir had caught a Pit Viper (Snake) which was hidden in the rock gap. He caught it, to rescue, but it had became aggressive and came on to his hand, to avoid any injuries he threw it in downward direction (towards me). Imagine, I was just, 10 feet away from it. I was scared, for a while. Seeing a snake was a sudden change to me, however, it didn’t disturb me from climbing. Further, the snake was rescued and sent aside. Finally, I reached the summit; the blissful scenario around the fort was enchanting. To narrate, there was a small village at the bank of a water reservoir, surrounded by mountain ranges in all direction, and the pleasant climate. My mind suddenly moved to be free from the original world and come to the peaceful and calm place. After, entire team reached the summit, part of the team was ready to rappel down from the north side. Till then I explored the fort, identified Pinnacle Dangya on west side, eagerly waiting to reach its summit. The second part of this trek was fun, wherein I tied Harness around the waist for almost all the trekkers. Further, the best part was to rappel down 40-50feet in just 2-3min. To summarize, I had nullified fear to scale of 1 on 10, developed a trust on the system.

At this point I take an opportunity to thank climbing experts Sanjay Sir and Dinesh Sir without them the climb and descend was impossible. Last but not the least Rahul (Trek leader), who timely managed everything in a short notice, executed the plan and finally took it to the success.

Things learnt from this trek are to aim high with more confidence with less fear and will strive to follow it.

Mohan