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Banyan Tree pillar is a stand-alone stack of rock, about 150-220 feet high from the base, with dozens of crack lines and a couple of short bolted routes around its faces. Located about kilometer and a half from the Savandurga main dome, and about 70 km to west of Bangalore, is approachable either via Magadi road or Mysore road.
Description
Access issues inherited from Savandurga, Magadi Road
Committing routes. Don’t get on them, if you don’t have capabilities to complete the routes, or have the means and experience to exit the climbs.
Some of the routes are bolted (8mm) but the pitches have typically long runouts. Some of the rock is brittle, especially at the lower pitches so be careful.
It is also adviseable to bring some additional gear (friends and nuts). The way down is an easy walk (take right when arriving on top).
Approach
A kilometer and half before you reach Savandurga main dome, there is a goat path that starts to the left of the road and leads up to the Banyan Tree Pillar. BT Pillar is visible from the road. As of early 2019, an inverted ‘peace sign’ painted in blue on a tree adjacent to the road marked the start of the trail leading upto the BT Pillar.
The hike up takes about 20-30 minutes from the trail head. There is an intermediate plateau along the trail. The trail bends right, behind the plateau.
The hike to Louvre is slightly more challenging. In 2014, the base was overgrown from lack of traffic it took much hacking to clear the thorns along the path.
Since 2014, the path has been cleared quite a bit. But it tends to overgrow quickly.
Ethic inherited from Savandurga, Magadi Road
Below this rock there is a temple (very few people live there), where people mainly visit for praying. But very few go to the top and whoever goes takes the relatively easy round about path. Next the temple there is a botanical garden maintained by the govt. of Karnataka.
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Mon 5 Jun
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