A trek to remember - Skandagiri

- July 02, 2023

The bus picked me up at 11:20 pm at Banashankari bus stop and stopped in a few more places to pick the remaining trekkers. In about an hour, I was surprised that a 50 seater bus was full with youngsters, the broad age range would well be within 18 to 24 years and the enthusiasm was evident.

Once the last section of trekkers were picked, the back row group started playing music using their Bluetooth devices and voiced over the songs which were predominantly in Hindi. The songs were sung in loud fashion until the bus stopped for refreshments 2.5 hours latter and the group was truly living up to the back benchers tag. Am 39 years of age as I write this blog, may well be the oldest in the group and it has been a long time since I experienced such high energy amongst a group of people.

The trek started at 4 am from Skandagiri base point and I was leading with the guide for a significant portion of the trek. About 20 minutes into the trek, I could sense it was tough and scale of difficulty will rank well above moderate. The stepwise inclination in the trail was consistent right till the peak and there was hardly any section of plain path, the heart was pounding heavily within 10 to 15 minutes and hence a few minutes of break at frequent intervals was necessary. I would definitely rank the trek a couple of notches above moderate difficulty.

The distance from base point to the peak is roughly 4 kms with an elevation of 1350 meters. It took us 1.5 to 2 hours to reach the top depending on the pace of each individual but the peak having sported a fog cover and mild drizzle pepped with cold weather was a terrific experience. Am sure a majority would have felt that it was well worth the climb, we were allowed to stay on for an hour to soak in the experience, take pictures and snack on whatever was brought to the top.

(Skandagiri Peak - 6:00 to 6:30 am)

At 7 am, after the mandatory group picture, we began to descend towards base point. Contrary to popular belief, the descend is not a cake walk and one needs to be careful to land every step with full attention, the danger of slipping down and injuring oneself lurks large. Plus the angle of descent makes the toes strike the inner corner of the shoes at almost every step, which is a pain that needs to be endured right till the plains of base point is arrived.

As we trekked down, the fog began uncovering itself which opened the panoramic view of all the greenery around us. Pictures were taken and some choose to spend some time to soak in the sight of true mother nature. The descend literally takes the same amount of time as ascent well, the difference is the effort in the latter while the former takes a lot of attention.