Bullseye’s Blog

Now that I’ve finally gotten photos collected from the group, here’s a post about what has so far been not only the best part of the trip, but the best climbing I’ve ever done anywhere – Chatru and Chota Dhara in the Indian Himalayas..

View of the mountains from Chatru

Chatru and Chota Dhara are known (or at least they should be known) for the vast supply of boulder problems that litter the valley in which they lie. A British fellow has spent quite a lot of time there and put up hundreds of really high quality problems mostly in the higher grades. That said – I’m not much of a boulderer. After a couple of days of getting thrown off really hard problems and rubbing my fingertips raw, I decided enough was enough, grabbed Jeremy and decided that even though the nearest hospital was six hours away, this would be a great time to try two things for the first time – new routing, and leading multipitch trad.

Rather than recounting that particular epic in full detail, I’ll just throw in this picture of me and Jeremy huddling in cave – cold, wet and with yet another rappel to go.

We probably would have looked even more unhappy had we known that while yes, the ropes did BARELY reach the bottom on the last rappel, they would then get stuck and require not one but TWO trips back up a full 60 meter pitch to fix.

Luckily the rest of my climbing went significantly better (and Jeremy is still willing to climb with me). Not counting that first route, I lead seven first ascents. Most were not anything particularly special, but on one trip into a nearby canyon I saw a line that immediately called out to me – a really fantastic looking corner crack. At first I was hesitant – on the con side it was definitely two pitches with a hanging belay and definitely looked difficult. On the pro side, it looked like there was fairly good protection the whole way up save the crux, it looked like great climbing, and most of all, I just really wanted to be the first one to send it.

Luckily Danny was on hand to sit back and take pictures (or go run for help). In the end it was fantastic climbing, definitely pushed my limits, and Dave and I went up and down without incident.

Pulling hard on Black Widow (5.10c) in Chatru

On the crux of Black Widow (5.10c) in Chatru

Now I’m back in Manali, relaxing for two days before we drive to Amritsar. We can’t legally bring any alcohol into Pakistan, so before we leave we have to deplete the stock of the truck bar and celebrate Ed’s birthday. I’m looking forward to that, but not the fact that yesterday in Amritsar it was 100 degrees!