You are hanging 30 feet from the ground by an anchor rope, tethered via figure-eight knots to a large granite rock. It's a overcast day, but from your perch, the view is amazing, green tree cover sprinkled with small towns, matching the blue skies and clouds. The horizon is wavered by the many hills of Ramanagara and Harohalli.
Time stops momentarily, the voices of chatter from family and friends below, is the only other connection to the world.
Sitting on the harness, bending the left leg, the right hand pushes up the golden jumar, locked. Then the left hand moves to the rope, and with help from the right on the blue jumar, the left leg stands on the daisy loop. Up one step. Now repeat till you are... between the rock and a hard place!
On a chill Sunday morning, we chose to drive about 100kms to "the base", just off Kanakpura road. Earlier, at 8am, at a highway restaurant, our guide Shyam, started off his introduction with, "I have known Manoj since 20 yrs...". Raju (also a veteran runner), his family and a newbie mountaineer, Mukund were co-guides.
The plan was to climb the hill, of course, but also to get introduced to the world of free soloing. We soaked up every word, every story that Shyam was saying.
As we passed the rocky outcorps, our first stop was to get familiar with the rock surface. The kids tried to go a couple of steps up a small one. Some rules of thumb - plant your feet flat, do not use the knee or elbow, etc.
We kept a slow pace, also giving a chance for another family, Raghu's to join us. Group-fie at high noon. No, it wasn't noon yet, but that's the name of our rock backdrop.
In another 30mins, we reached the peak, complete with a Rama temple, shed for festivities and bunch of college kids cooking their "2-min Maagi" on a campfire!!
Raghu and 2 more kids joined us here. Hanuman chalisa was recited, fruits, nuts, chikkis were had.
Next stop, was the unassuming Rush hour. Again, no, not the traffic kind that Bangalore is infamous for. This one is the 30-foot rock balanced precariously, in a small clearing.
We spent the next 3 hours there, well past "high noon".
Shyam and team first scaled the rock from behind, secured the anchor and the safety ropes, using figure eight knots, carabiners and hooks. It took them nearly 30mins to set it up.
Although they understood nothing of the instructions, the kids were the most enthu to try it - youngest first!
And so it happened, one by one, they wore the harness, jumarred up and slid down. Up and down, while the rest of us settled down, making PBJ sandwiches for whoever had jumarred. And then they repeated another time.
What goes up, must come down - we did, before dusk, chatting about with nary care for the world. We all took back our rock-rubbed, thorn-scratched skins, (bum hole pyjamas) as trophies from a day well spent at Muthurayana betta.
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