Kalsubai 8th-9th Dec 2007

Kalsubai at 5400 ft, is the highest peak in Maharashtra and hence is an attraction to trekkers. I had been to Kalsubai once in 2004, but I was eager to go again. This trek was being conducted by Trek'Di, an organisation based in Pune. There were a total of 30 people in our batch. 

We left from the Fergusson College main gate on 8th December 2007 at 11 pm and reached its base village(Bari) at about 5 in the morning. Since everybody was tired and cold by the long bus ride it was decided that everyone would take a nap and leave for Kalsubai by 8:30 am. So some of us slept in the bus while some of us slept in the village school which was just next to the road. After a good sleep for about 1½ hours, we made some tea had a small breakfast, distributed the theple's (a kind of spiced flat bread) among the batch and left for Kalsubai. 

We travelled by bus to the village just ahead of Bari on the top of the bus and IT WAS COLD!! After we reached the village we took an introduction session in which we got to know every person of the batch. After about half an hour we started ascending towards Kalsubai, there was a small temple on the way where we waited for some time for the rest of the batch. Up till now there wasn't much of a climb, but, the gradient became slightly steep from this point. 

We reached the first of the 3 ladders in about 45 mins from the temple. We ascended the ladder and completed the first step on Kalsubai :). While climbing there was this vendor boy who used to climb every Saturday-Sunday to the top to sell lemonade to the trekkers who came there. We drank some lemonade and started climbing with renewed vigour, but the top was nowhere in sight. Finally the second ladder came into view and we had to climb a rock patch to get to it. Once we climbed the rock patch (an easy one), we climbed the second ladder completed the 2nd step. After climbing for about 15-20 mins, we saw a large rock structure which is the top most point of the Kalsubai peak. There is a third ladder using which we can climb on to this structure and the highest point in Maharashtra.

There is a temple of Kalsubai Mata on the peak which marks the highest point in Maharashtra. The view from the to is simply amazing! We could see the forts Alang, Madan and Kulang to the east. Then after taking some photographs, we sat down to eat lunch. 

After taking a group photograph, we started to descend at around 1:30 pm and reached the base at around 5 pm. At the base we prepared and ate bhel before starting for Pune in our bus. We reached Pune at about 12 am.