Trek to Skandha-giri Peak...!!!

Hmmm...i heard of this peak quite some time back through some mail fwds. Might be you had also seen some mails with subject "a place above clouds" or smthg like that. But the real fun for this trek to do is in full moon night. So was just waiting for the perfect time and for some good company.
Finally the time had come it was the november month in 2008.One of my collegue asked me for a small trek, i suggested them to go this peak. As it is quite near to bangaloren the guys are going for the first time for trek. I found it as a good opportunity, so i too joined the gang. So the plan was ready, from net almost trek related info had been downloaded. Actually its good to have all info with you if you are planing to be on the peak before sunrise coz in that case u have to start during midnight and in that time you wil not find anybody from whom you can ask where to go or not. We were total 14 so having 7 bikes including mine. This was also a special one coz in this trek my bike first time touchs the highway...:).

the peak to conquer

So all were set to start for the trek. It was around 1:30am by the time when we start for this trek from madiwala. As a simple rule of the game 'no overtaking' n 'no parallel biking' n have a safe journey. All of start strated in one line jut behind of each other. Around 3am we took our first break on highway. Had small chit-chat and started again. Upto Nandi hills its a very straight fwd way but actual confusion comes after it. Actually there is a ashram n from there you have to take the right. But there are two ashram with the same name :). So you have to take the right
from first asharam. We were almost lost in night where to go for hill. In the mean time we met another gang of 4 bikers that was also lost. Finally we met one local guy and he tells that he will guide us to the peak with a charge of 250/-. All of us were got exhausted searching for the way to hill, so decided to let him to guide us to the peak. Finally it was around 4:30am we were @ the foothills of skhandhagiri. Now these days there is a parking spcae where people can park there bikes @ 15/- per bike and cars @ 30/- per car. As soon as we parked our bikes we started for the terk coz all of us wanted to see sun-rise. All of us whoever was carrying toarch, had taken out our toarchs and started climbing the peak. It was real fun to climb a hill during night time in light of toarchs. As almost all of the guys were going for trekking for the first time. So they were lacking the basic principle of treking as it is a team game. So who ever was carrying the toarch just using it for to lite his own way and not bothering about others like as some of us were carrying the toarchs so it was the resposibilit yof other to show them the way. But it was not a trekking gruop it was just a mob which is climbing the hill. It sounds quite strange to me and pity for those who were not carrying the toarch. Umm...i was counting it as my worst trekking expirence till date but later on i had one more worsen expirence during trek of sakhleshpur trek...ll tel u in that trek blog. Ok...Ok...no more personnel feeling....we were @ the peak by 5:30 with some breath taking steps during the trek. While climbing the peak we havnt seen anybody climbing the peak, but as soon as we reached the peak there were aruond 50 or more people who were already there. On the peak you can find some old wall of a fort which is considered to be there from time of Tipu-Sultan. One old temple of some lord is also there. Now it is partially occupied by a tea stall, a guys sells tea n bread in morning.

sun-rise @ hill

wid bike partner @ hill top

sign of temple @ hill top

the beautifull n dangerous part of trek...!!!

while getting down @ small shiva temple

We stay over there for around 2 hrs and had some rest. Now its time to get down from the hill. I thought of it would be easy as it is already the case for other treks. Getting down is more easy than climbing. But really speaking getting down was more tougher than climbing. It took around 1 n haf hour to all of us to get down.

Can see skandha-giri on back side

Overall it was mixture of good and bad expirence. But you cannot expect much from guys like these who are trekking for the first and doing it just for the sake for the trekking....better to leave it. For me it was a wonderfull n breath-taking ex for being to this trek and it was quite tough wrt to my expectations for this trek. So one more addtions to the list of peak conquered and lets see which is the next one....!!!