Kalsubai - with a twist

Height : 5400 ft. (- highest peak in the Sahyadris; the typical trek starts from about 2700 ft.)

Flavor : Butterscotch if you add the twist; plain vanilla otherwise.

Difficulty : Easy (- would have labeled it moderate for the strain had it not been for the tens of kids and grand-moms we saw climbing effortlessly); not risky/scary.

Endurance : 2-3 hours of medium/steep climb and 1.5 hours of descent. (Total time : 1 day ex-Mumbai)

Travel mode : Train + bus (+ jeep)

Cost : Rs.250 per person

Region : Igatpuri south

Trek route : Jahagirdarwadi (/ Bari) -> Kalsubai from the east -> walk around ridge to southern tip and west -> walk back and descend to Bari

My trek date : 7th Oct 2013

Experience :

It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. You think you're on your way back to civilization when your trail abruptly ends and you realize you're lost. You remember that this is precisely what the locals had warned you about - there is no human defined trail where you're going. You're not worried; you think you have a general idea of the right direction, so you can back up a little and get on track. But precisely at that point, a thick cloud cover descends around you and visibility drops to 5 feet; it becomes late-evening dark. You recall that locals had told you it's an animal trail and that tigers and wild boars frequent the area when it gets dark. You try to keep your mind clear and not to panic.

After you eventually make it back, you think it wasn't such a difficult trek after all. Thrilling, it definitely was, probably because it was an offbeat route not oft taken (- haven't seen a single blog about it).

Here's what the mountain looks like when you begin the hike:

Kalsubai from Bari village and on the way up
[The peak can be seen in the right half of the photos]

The hike to the top is pretty uneventful. You can do a little rock climbing at some points along the way, and the second set of ladders (- you can read about them in some of the blogs listed in the Homework section below) is quite rickety. But that's as far as your adventure goes, unless, you make a failed attempt at finding a direct way to descend from Kalsubai to Shendi (Bhandardara).

Our attempt failed because the directions we followed were a little ambiguous, and we misinterpreted the parts that weren't ambiguous. Plus there were the clouds to block our view. We were fortunate the cloud cover moved just in time for us to realize we had crossed the southern tip of the ridge and moved on to the western side.

Views along the Kalsubai ridge
[Bottom-left: Kalsubai peak from the western side of the ridge]

Views from the southern tip of the Kalsubai ridge
[Top-left: Sakira mountain, adjoining Kalsubai to its west,
Top-right: Other mountains to the west,
Bottom: Bhandardara (Arthur) lake to the south]

The route to Shendi definitely isn't via the southern tip - that tip ends in a 50 meter vertical fall. Apparently (- not verified), it's through the col between the Kalsubai and the adjoining Gometi mountain, and then along the right side of the Gometi mountain (according to The Sahyadri Companion). Note that this is not a well-defined, beaten path, so in case you try it, do not go beyond any point of no return.

[Top and bottom left: southern tip of the Kalsubai ridge,
top-right: Gometi ridge on the south-east,
bottom-right: col between Kalsubai and Gometi ridge as seen from Bari]

Words of advice :

I would strongly recommend against taking unexplored tracks, unless you have looked up reliable maps, have decent outdoor instincts and a good sense of direction, and are aware of potential problems. Stop exploring when you reach a point where you won't be able to turn back and make it to your starting point before dark. Never take a route that you cannot retrace on your way back. Most important of all - no matter what, do not panic; evaluate the situation and make decisions with a cool head.

Pointers :
Sitting at a general compartment door of the Tulsi Express, starting from Thane at 5:40 AM, we reached Igatpuri at around 8:00. The bus stand is about 10 minutes away northwards, parallel to the railway line. Since the next direct bus going via Bari was at 10:15, we took a bus to Ghoti, which is pretty close to Igatpuri, and from where many jeeps ply to Bhandardara. The jeep starting point is near a Jain mandir, which is a 10-minute walk from the Ghoti bus stand. Since these are shared jeeps, you might have to wait for some time until the entire jeep 'volume' is occupied. Yes, they literally stuff the jeep with people. Our 9-seater jeep carried around 35 people, including 7-8 people on the top! We got down at Jahagirdarwadi, which is a couple of minutes before Bari (- saves you a 10-minute walk, no big deal). The ride costs Rs.25-40, depending on the season.
If you think this is a hassle, you can hire an entire jeep from Kasara/Igatpuri, or maybe from your city. The bus frequency from Igatpuri is bad, that from Kasara is even worse.

We started walking at 10:00 and reached the top at about 12:30. The trail is fairly well-trodden and difficult to lose your way on. As a landmark, there's a temple about 30 minutes into the hike. The climb becomes steeper after this temple.

While coming down, if you want to have a little more fun, keep looking for a flat trail on the right. About 10 minutes after the well near the top, you'll find one starting from a clearing. When we took this trail, there was also a hut-shop at the clearing where the trail started. There are at least 2 such trails. Depending on which one you take, you might have to do a little rock climb where the trail seems to end. The trail is well-defined in the beginning, but when you are near the southern tip, it almost vanishes, and you see random animal tracks all over the place. While returning, we took one such track, an incorrect one, not knowing there's more than one going back. When we realized our trail has a dead end (and the events described at the beginning of this page unfolded), we decided we'll climb straight to the top of the ridge (- that seemed to be the only unmistakable direction then) and walk to the Kalsubai temple along the top. Fortunately, after climbing a few metres, pulling on the tall grass and a few rocks, we found the trail we'd taken while going south. This whole detour lasted 3 hours. At 4 PM, we were back on the regular trail down to Bari.

The last bus to Kasara reaches Bari at about 6 PM. However, note that the bus driver can brazenly avoid stopping at Bari (or stop a hundred metres ahead of or before Bari) if the bus is already too full. Your alternatives then are to wait for the bus to Igatpuri until 7 or 8 (?) o'clock, or hail a shared jeep going to Ghoti (and cough out more than what you paid for your morning ride to Bari), from where buses to Igatpuri are relatively frequent. The bus takes almost an hour and a half to reach Kasara station from Bari, well in time for you to catch the 8:15 local to Mumbai.

Homework (- this section has information collated from other sources; it's not first-hand):

The typical route is a climb starting from the Bari village, which lies on the way from Igatpuri to Bhandardara / Pune, and descend back to the same village. It is recommended that you start from Mumbai / Pune at night so that you can start the trek from Bari early in the morning. Avoid this trek in summer - there's no forest cover and the water in the well en route is not potable.

Travel guidance: Take the last local to Kasara or a long distance train to Igatpuri at around the same time. Bari is 45 minutes away from Igatpuri, and an hour more from Kasara. The first bus from Kasara to Bari is at 7 AM; the first one from Igatpuri is at 5 AM. Buses to Bhandardara, Rajur, Akole, Pune go via Bari. The last bus from Bari to Igatpuri is at 7 PM (?), and the last one to Kasara is at 6 PM. You get buses from Bhandardara / Shendi too. Alternatively, you could hire jeeps for this journey. Apparently, you can stay overnight at a school in Bari for some nominal fee if you plan to reach it late at night instead of in the morning.

http://thesahyadriresource.blogspot.in/2012/02/kalsubai.html and http://deepabhi.tripod.com/kalsubai.html summarize the trek route from Bari.
http://traveller.outlookindia.com/destination.aspx?id=481 and http://ratangadbhandardaratrek.blogspot.in/2011/11/kalsubai-revisited.html have a more detailed route description.

http://ratangadbhandardaratrek.blogspot.in/2012/11/blog-post.html describes another route off Asangaon (Chhondha ghat -> Ghatghar -> Udadavane -> Kirda -> Kalsubai -> Bari), which is much longer and difficult than the route from Bari, probably even technical, and isn't recommended unless you're going with a professional group or have previous experience in technical climbing. http://kpy2.tripod.com/sahyadri/igatpuri/chonda/chonda.html outlines the way to the Chhondha - Ghatghar pass.