Tadianmol Trek Trip

How it started
Another Friday night was going waste as I was still working in Bldg 40 of Infosys Electronic city campus. Suddenly my phone rang and my roommates asked if I am in a mood for an outing, other latecomers TT and Ashish were also there so we together zeroed on an interesting adventure. We decided to go for trekking on Tadianmol, which incidentally is also highest peak in Coorg.

I still had some work so I requested my friends to do all the packing and in meanwhile I finished my job and booked a Cab (Sumo). We wanted to start trek early in the morning and as estimated time of total journey from Bangalore to Base camp of Tadiandmol is around 8-9 hrs, so we decided to start at around 9 A.M., Indian standard time :):)

We were 6 roommates (TT, Ashish, Nitish, Chugh, Shalin and myself Ashu) and we had 1 visitor(Raman, Nitish's chaddi friend) from US.


Ashish and Shalin took over packing, Nitish and Chugh went for shopping for the food, cold drink and obviously for their fuel too. By the time I reached home all were set to go save our cab, not to mention driver’s mobile was not reachable. We asked our cook (he was of same age) too to join us and he readily agreed( obviously he had to made some pooris and sabji). Even though we started late by more than 2 hours, still we were in great mood.

Journey

We started off around 11:00 PM, we had never seen Tadiandmol and we had thought that it would be a well known and very well distinguished peak which could be located easily.

One of many mistakes that we committed was that none of us knew the local language and none of us had been there before due to which it took us about 3 extra hours to be at the exact place. We took 11 hrs to be at the base camp where the actual trek starts, special thanks to our driver who himself was on his first visit to this area.

First, we reached the bus stop of Aramane where we made ourselves comfortable by relieving ourselves of the unwanted burden, which had got accumulated on the way. It was already 9 AM and we were not sure if we had reached the right place, we had earlier planned to start trek early morning but climate was still very friendly. We did our breakfast and started off for the base camp, where we reached around 10:00 AM.

At the base camp we met another group of trekkers, we took some basic information from them. As usual, Mr. Glutton Nitish carried the food bag and was first to start, but we were not comfortable leaving him alone with food so we caught up with him.

Here we started off, eight of us. Clouds were playing with the sun and that was meant to make our job easier. After walking for about 2 hours we saw a plain area and our belly was asking some serious questions, so we decided to have our lunch in that desolated part of land. There was an old abandoned hut near the place, I just wondered who could have even thought of living in that lonely place. When we were mid way through the lunch, the leech menace affected our camp. Almost everybody was bleeding barring TT and me, Chugh was first to be attacked. We spread the salts on the leeches and that worked, this place has more leeches than other treks. Anyway thanks to tiny bloodsuckers we packed up our lunch and again started off, I already had my share :).

On this trek you have two options, first to trek on the trodden path or to create your own path by taking adventurous route. We decided on second option and left the trek path, jumped into the jungle and trekked in it for about 15 minutes. When we came out of it we realized what a folly we had commiteed because again we were struck by leeches and now in a major fashion but again as luck favored me, I was safe. We trekked for about 1.5 hours before coming across a peak was, we were happy to see it and thought that we were too fast. About 20 minutes before we conquered this peak, we came across a huge stone, it was magnificently big so one can never miss noticing this. We decided that we would sit on this on our way back. I had trekked hardly 10 minutes from this stone when my borrowed shoes gave up and sole was separated literally but due to leeches I could not have carried on without the shoe so I took out some plastic bags and tied it up.

We reached the peak but as soon as we neared its top we realized that we were so much very wrong, now we were able to see 3 more peaks standing tall behind first one. We choosed the tallest of them and started over there, by now all of our water stock was over and all were thirsty but as peak was in sight so we decided to carry on. This time again myself and Ashish decided to go for adventure and we decided to take a short cut by doing rock climbing while others decided to follow longer path along the steep valley. This rock climbing was best thing as twice I almost rolled over and had I fallen from that height I don’t know what would have happened to my body parts but surely I would have received multiple fractures if not dead. Ashish is quite athletic and lightly built so it was easier for him, then and there I decided that back home I would go to Gym (and that I did for sure). You know what, once you are in midway while climbing a rock then you have no choice but to make it J.

I had heard that mountains play games with you, they make you feel job to be easier than it actually is. As soon as we approached the top of second peak thinking that we made it, we were able to see couple of peaks behind this one too and again taller than the present one. Compared with this peak, the first one was a cake walk. By now Raman had started showing signs of wearing out, and asthma was complicating the matters for him. Others were also tired and I think some water would have really helped. We decided to take rest before proceeding for the final peak, as Raman was in trouble so we decided that we would not go beyond this peak even if we see one. Some of enthusiastic members were averse to the idea as we wanted to finish it off this time itself, it’s a crime to leave job half way through.

This mountain was really beautiful with absolute scenic beauty, makes you feel like you are in Switzerland. From the second peak we noticed something unusual about this bunch of peaks, somewhere near the top this peak had a very dense dark green cover, on other mountains we noticed only light green cover or some bare rocks. It increased the excitement. It took us another 30 minutes to reach the dense green cover, it was but a dense and wet forest. We were bit apprehensive about entering it as it was steep and we didn’t know what is on the other end or if this is just the top. What was worrying us was that it was quite damp and some giant trees of bamboos species were lying crumbled with some big animal’s dung on the ground, but common sense or ignorance says that no big animal lives on such heights so we decided to prod on. I still cannot think, of the reason why it was so damp and slippery, maybe because it was dense and it took some time for rain water to evaporate, it was more of a swamp.

As we climbed higher in the dense region, we felt that we were going deeper into the jungle and couple of our teammates again talked about going back but we insisted and carried on. Suddenly, when we crossed a bush and took a turn we were again out in open with cold wind blowing around. It was a wonderful sight, from there on we further climbed another peak before reaching the summit of this small mountain.



It was a breath-taking site, we had clouds around us so it was all misty, only other peaks were visible, no habitation even far away could be seen. Strong cold winds were blowing but due to trek we were all sweating. We took off our shirts and enjoyed the moment, we stayed on the top for some time before returning.
Just to add, even on top of that peak we had our favorite push up competition.

Retreat
During retreat we had no water due to which couple of our team members got cramps, so it would be advisable to save some water for part of climb down. On our way back we saw the same huge black stone and relaxed on it’s top. From other group we came to know that there was a waterfall nearby, so my cousin, and myself went to fetch some water, it was a very beautiful and scenic waterfall. (If you are retreating then this waterfall could be reached after walking about 50 meters on the right of the masculine black Stone, just try to follow the sound from the waterfall). My cousin tried to be fast and slipped into water, I told him to be careful and next moment even I was into the cold water. Anyway, we got the sweet cold water and there on it was easy journey.

All in all a great experience and I would suggest you to go for this trek around October to avoid harsh conditions. If you camp on the top in night then you can plan next afternoon in Coorg city.

Statistics
Distance : From Bangalore its about 250 Kms.
Nearest town: Vir Raj pet( about 30 Kms.)
Route : Tadiandmol is highest peak in Coorg, it’s in Madikeri district. On a
bus you have to get down at Aramane bus stop, this is if you are coming
from Vir Raj pet, which you would do if you start from Bangalore.
Trek : Aprox. 7 hrs, would advice to rest on the top of peak for a night.