The winter season of 2013 arrived with lots of possibilities and ignited the desire in us to climb in India's two of the most well known and world class destinations, Hampi & Badami . We packed our stuff and headed to the Southern Indian state of Karnataka for two months to climb and explore the amazing granite of Hampi & Sandstone of Badami . Though we have climbed in Hampi before, it was only for a very short duration of two to three days in 2011 & 2012, this is the first time for us to actually spend a lot of time in Hampi and explore the amazing wealth of bouldering it has to offer.We arrived in hampi at 25th of November with our friend Ananta Desai, he had extensively climbed in Hampi for the last two season and knows a lot about the areas. It took a week for us to get used to the sharp and small crimps that is so usual of Hampi .The first hard problem we tried is
Surface Traverse Fb 7C , at the Relax boulder area, the lack of hard training back home reveals its ugly face as we didn't do well on this crimpy sustained powerfull line. After an hour of Working on it we left defeated and tired. The another classic line we tried is the
Aeroplane Fb 7B+, this problem is inside a cave so can be climbed throughout the day, which is generally unusual of Hampi because of day time high temperatures. Ananta made a fine ascent of this line ,we came close but the ascent eluded us.We also visited the famous Baba cafe boulder, i tried the famous
Baba's in space Fb 7A+, the sloppy top out proved to be a real crux and the first two seasons on it i couldn't send the line.We also worked on
Indian summer Fb 7C+ one of the most wanted problem in hampi ,Ananta was projecting it, we could feel he is getting close on this, another beautiful line i worked on for a session is
Why like This? Fb 7A+ a sloper problem on smooth holds, very rare for hampi . After spending around ten days in Hampi we headed to Badami. We were about to meet Paige Classen a famous sport climber from US, she was there to try and climb the hardest sport route in the country
Ganesha 8b+.
After almost three years we had the chance to climb on the amazing red sandstone cliffs of Badami. .I made the repeat ascent of a route i previously climbed
Honeymoon 7b, a classic line bolted by Arnaud Petit. For the next three days we put our focus on a route called
Samsara 7c+, this route is located at the temple area, is one of the most beautiful line in Badami. The route starts with a hard boulder problem for the first three bolts then to a good rest, and after that has some nice sustained climbing with occasional rests to the top. On the first day we did the moves and worked the route thoroughly. and after a rest day we were able to redpoint it. In the mean time there was some good action going on
Ganesha 8b+, Paige, Jon & two young Indian climber Tuhin & Sandeep were working on it. The only good condition to climb the route was early in the morning and it offered only an hour and half to climb on it before it gets too hot. Paige was the first climber to send the line, the crux move was hard for her as was the lower boulder section, but as soon as she linked it she was able to send the whole line , making the first female ascent of the route. Later Tuhin made the first Indian ascent of the route ,followed by Jon Glassberg, which was his first 5.14 ascent .
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| Honeymoon 7b |
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| Paige on lower boulder section of Ganesha |
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| before the redpoint crux |
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| sending Ganesha 8b+ |
After spending some time in Badami we came back to Hampi for a few days, the very day we returned to Hampi we met Sean Villanueva and Nicolas Favresse , it was a great experience to meet these guys ,Sean wanted to go to Badami and climb
Puss man 5.12/7b+, an amazing roof crack . We got the information about this line from Harry Verioth at Shiva cafe, this line was first ascended by Kurt Albert and probably never had a repeat. We were psyched to join Sean for Badami and try out some hard crack climbing,
Before we left for Badami ,we spend a few days of bouldering in Hampi with Sean , in this time i manged to send
Why like This? Fb 7A+ , the same morning Ananta was able to send
Indian summer Fb 7C+ his long standing project . Another day we visited The Black power area, here Sean made a impressive ascent of the Psychologically demanding
Silent hunter Fb 6C, the hole below that boulder is really intimidating. I also managed to send
Black power 2 Fb 7B, a steep powerfull line which suited my strengths perfectly. with some good sends under me i felt confident and psyched to go trad climbing in Badami
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| Why like this?Fb 7A+ |
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| Sending Why like this?Fb 7A+ |
We arrived in badami after a long bus journey from Hampi and put up at Sanman lodge.The weather was pretty cold , we had early dinner and went to bed quickly. Next morning we woke up early and went to the Ganesh plateau to look for potential lines. We spotted an
Overhanging Dihedral left of a sport route called
Indo-Japanese project /Made in Japan 7c+, we had no idea about the difficulty of the route, Sean went for an onsight of the route ,he did it super smooth ,like a piece of cake, the crux of the route was a section of overhanging squeeze Chimney ,which needed some slippery hand jam moves to overcome, this section gave us a lot of trouble while seconding , we could barely managed to climb it and was exhausted after that. According to Sean it was around 5.11, a different game for us though as it was a type of climbing we are quite new at.That afternoon Sean onsighted
Millennium Crack 5.11+/7a, a steep hand and finger crack also located in Ganesh plateau. we followed and cleaned the line. The next day Sean was going to try
Puss man 5.12/7b+, with lot of anticipation we went to bed early.
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| Sean at the crux |
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| Overhanging Dihedral 5.11 |
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| Puss man 5.12/7b+ |
Next morning we woke up early with lot of anticipation ,
Puss man 5.12/7b+ is located at the painted wall area behind the lake , We reached below the wall around 6, the weather was cool and everything was calm around the wall ,the first section of the route is an off width and can only be protected with size 4 and 5 cams, which unfortunately we didn't have. But that didn't stop Sean , he placed only a few smaller sizes on some horizontal cracks at the start and run it out up to the bolt just below the roof , he has to be very careful as the climb was dirty and slippery and he was starring at a ground fall until the bolt, with the scary shit out of the way Sean flawlessly climbed the 6 meter long roof crack consisting of powerful hand jams, fists and cup moves, he placed one yellow and one red Camalot to protect the roof. It was an amazing onsight, the best climbing i have ever seen. I was more awestruck with this effort when i tried to climb the route on a top rope, the off width itself proved a nemesis let alone the top roof crack , it was a humbling experience trying to climb this beast, but also made me determined to come back and finish it in future. That evening we went to the temple area and enjoyed some nice sport climbing.
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| lower offwidth section |
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| approaching the roof crack |
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| at the roof crack |
The next morning we went to check out
Ganesha 8b+, Sean gave it a good try, and was able to do all the moves quickly, but he didn't have enough time to go for the redpoint . After that we went to the deluxe area as it stays in shade during the daytime, here the first route we did is
Horn please 5.11a traditional route, after Sean's onsight of the route we tried it on lead , the climbing was powerfull, involving finger locks and hand jams, after much effort i was able to redpoint it ,then we did the sport routes of the area , Sean onsighted
Honeymoon 7b, Surga & swali 7b, Last day in Badami 7a, i also managed to redpoint
Surga & swali 7b, Last day in Badami 7a . Sean was about to leave for Mumbai today so we packed up and headed down in the afternoon.This was our last day of climbing in badami this trip, it was a great learning experience for us and a great pleasure to climb with Sean .
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| Sean on Ganesha 8b+ |
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| Horn please 5.11a |
We came back to Hampi the next morning and put up at Hindustani restaurant, this place is located opposite of Baba cafe boulder, which gave us the opportunity to try the problems early in the morning as the friction was important in some of the top outs.Here we met Peitro Vangi a climber from Italy. he was here two years ago and previously climbed in Hampi & badami, we became very good friends and climbed a lot together. this time we focused on the Double arete and Baba cafe boulder as they were close and had lot of quality lines. The double arete boulder stays in shade for most of the day and we spend lot of time here .We stared working on the line
Quality Control Fb 7B+, which proved really challenging but possible. This crimpy line took me four sessions to send and made me happy afterwards. Also in the meantime i send
Baba's in space Fb 7A+, and
In the shadow Fb 7A, and
Double arete Fb 7B,
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