Routes in Asia for selected grade

Located along the trail, closer to the top, but halfway through.

The left most crack going up straight. Jams, jugs, crimps, and jams. The crux is towards the top and the top out. Read the line wrong, and it might feel like a

5.11.

Rack: A hand-sized and fist-sized cam or passive pieces.

Top Anchor: Finger- to fist-sized crack directly above it.

Natural anchor: Potentially in a few years, the sapling behind might turn into a tree. Boulderable line.

Documented on Oct 13, 2021. Sohan, belayed by Kartik V and Akhil Menon.

Good fun climbing. Multiple short pitches with 1 permanent bolt on a fun traverse and two fixed anchors for the rap. down.

1p (5.9|20m) 2p (A1|25m) 3p (A4|25m) 4p (5.8|30m)

Between the tree and the block of rock.

Get atop the block of rock (four-feet tall), clip right, and through the pocket, then the vertical feature. Couple of crux moves. Including a heel through the pocket and then the 2nd-bolt protected move above it.

“Flowy route”.

FA: Sohan. Route credit: Shyam, Charan, & Sohan. Sep 4th, 2022

1p (5.8|40m) 2p (5.7|25m)

Take-off crux, and then the slab move between the 2nd and 3rd bolt.

FA: Rachit Singhvi. Route credit: Shyam & Sohan. Sep 4th, 2022

P1: 5.9. 15-16 meters. 4 + 2

Take-off crux, only because the slab below seems slippery during the monsoons.

P2: 5.5. 30 meters. 3 + 2.

An exciting 5.5, only because it has great holds and the bolts are run-out. And gaining this amount of protected air-time around Yedumadu!

FA: Shyam. Route credit: Shyam, Vinay Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Charan, & nd th Sohan. Sep 2 , 2022. FFA: Sohan & Supriya Singh, Sep 18 , 2022

5.9/A0 1p (5.9|30m) 2p (|30m) 3p (A0|30m) 4p (|40m)

Surprise! Again a take-off crux. But all these moves are quite varied, and quite lovely.

The fourth bolt seems excessive, but only placed to avoid a ground fall during the monsoons.

FA: Charan H. Route credit: Shyam, Charan H., Rachit S, & Sohan. Sep 4th,

2022.

5.9/A0 1p (5.9|30m) 2p (|30m) 3p (A0|30m) 4p (|40m)

1p (5.9|35m) 2p (5.9|40m) 3p (|40m) 4p (|20m) 5p (|60m) 6p (|40m) 7p (*|45m)

1p (5.9|30m) 2p (5.8|38m) 3p (|25m) 4p (|25m) 5p (|38m) 6p (|38m) 7p (*|40m)

1p (5.9|25m) 2p (A0|25m) 3p (|35m) 4p (A0|35m) 5p (|35m)

1p (5.9|25m) 2p (5.9|25m) 3p (A1|20m) 4p (A0|35m) 5p (*|35m)

1p (5.8|32m) 2p (5.9|30m) 3p (5.9|25m) 4p (|20m) 5p (|*m)

No bolts.

Thamma

“On the South-east side. Doesn’t face Ibrahim side or Handi-Gundi”

Another Philip & Dominic route. (1989). These two French climbers seemed to have been very prolific that year.

1p (5.9|33m) 2p (|25m) 3p (A0|25m) 4p (|40m)

Opened by Lopsang Thisring, Kamalesh & other members of 'The Climbers' in 1987 during IMF All India Camp.

1p (5.9|40m) 2p (5.8|40m) 3p (5.8|30m) 4p (A0|28m) 5p (*|20m) 6p (5.7|28m) 7p (5.7|15m)

Route opened by either Naresh, Paramjeet, Annie in 90/91 (5.9/5.10aR) as per Dini, or by Subhomoy, Kamalesh & Jagadeesh in 1994.

1p (|60m) 2p (|30m) 3p (5.9|20m) 4p (5.8|25m) 5p (A0|20m)

Old bouldering routes on this boulder. A series of horizontal shallow cracks that could take gear.

The plumb line starting from left (right of the chimney) and finishing on the right arete. Cracks are deceptive, and shallow and flaring.

One-two piece protection, after 10-12 feet.

Rack: Protect with orange Metolius or green Alien or blue BD X4.

Anchor: Tree to the back. But better to hip belay and walk off.

Natural anchor: Tree

Route by Gunda Srinivas (1985).

1p (5.9|20m) 2p (5.7|30m) 3p (*|20m) 4p (5.8|25m) 5p (A0|20m)

This is left of the Bread Load Boulder, separated by the short chimney.

Take off over the nose, and on to the ledge. Protect the unseemly crack to the left with mid to small sized nuts, and top-out onto the ‘slopery’ ledge.

The crack is not very confidence-inspiring nor is the bouldery base, but a good exercise in sketchy nut placements.

One-two piece protection, after 10 feet.

Rack: Set of nuts

Anchor: Tree to the right. But better to hip belay and walk of

P1: 5.9. 45 Meters, 7 bolts + 2. The start is on a narrow ledge, with a 30-foot slab below. You could protect the belayer with Trad gear at the ledge.

P2: 5.6. 45 meters, 5 bolts + 2. Easy run out to the top anchors.

Route credit, Mohit and Dini. Jan 1st, 2015.

P1: 5.9. 45 meters. 8-10 + 2 bolts

The crux is between bolt one and two. Don’t veer too much from the bolt line, while between the two bolts. The bolting is so optimal that a fall after the first bolt, before clipping the second bolt might deck you to the ground, if you pull up excess rope while clipping. Two separate broken ankles attest to this. Crux is true to the grade.

Suggested that you clip a long draw to be able to clip low and reduce the risk of falling to the ground.

P2: 5.6. 45 meters. 8-10 + 2 bolts.

Route credit, Dini. 2015

P1: 5.6. 50 meters, 3 + 2 bolts (Same as Memory loss)

P2: 5.9. 40 meters. 5 + 2 bolts.

Starts with a 20-meter runout on easy terrain, and then five bolts protecting the crux. The top Anchor station again shared with Memory Loss. The line runs along the left edge of the massive cave. The view into the cave is quite interesting.

Dini and friends, Feb 2015.

A local favorite because of the long length, accessibility, and good views.

Starts on a ledge, with a slab approach of 8-10 meters.

P1: 5.7. 30 meters. 5 + 2 bolts.

Scramble up the most prominent low angle ramp just below the long diagonal crack in the wall, and the bolts start after another 5-8 meters.

P2: 5.9. 33 meters. 7 + 2 bolts

Could connect P1 & P2 with a 70 meters rope for time-efficiency. No significant drag.

The crux is between bolt 1 and bolt 3. There after the grade eases up and the last three bolts are really easy.

P3: 5.9. 25 meters. 8 + 2 bolts.

The money pitch. 3rd to 4th bolt crux move is still disputed being between 5.7 to

5.10a, depending on who you ask! Watch for the fall between the crux bolts. One case of ankle injury from here.

The crux feels no harder than 5.7/5.8, if you get the beta right.

P4: 5.9. 37 meters. 9 + 2 bolts.

The long slab pitch, with crackling rock under your feet. Just get done with it!

Another rope length of exposed scrambling to the top out.

Exit: If you plan on abseiling, the 4th pitch has significant rope drag (once it took me 40 minutes to clean the rope!) Rest of the pitches are fine to rap off of.

Walk off, instead. After topping out, angle slightly right and walk another few hundred feet to the top of the plateau. If your first time, plan for an hour or two of hike out. Walk down the eastern ridge of Achalu.

Route credit: Dini, Prani & Seema. 2017

Get on the block of rock, past that follow the dyke, and then the crux as is the norm here; at the last three bolts.

The name alludes to the Chola stele reference to a now lost city located at the end of an ancient canal that cut across the Malay peninsula.

Route credit: Sohan (TR Soloed, Rap-bolted, & FFA)

On the south-facing slab. Stiffer than it looks. If you like Bangalore slab climbing, this is up your alley.

Crux is below the first bolt, and then some mildly spicy climbing above the bolts.

Route by Shyam Krishnakumar, Sohan, and Kiran Kallur. FA: Sohan. Nov 9th, 2022.

Fist/Offwidth

South of the Twin Towers. Hike north from the Stalin’s farm, and then right outofthefencesturnright. Thecrackisvisiblefromthetrail,totheeast.

Hand-stacks beta

Rack: #4 & #5 or #6. Hand-sized pieces for the anchor.

Top Anchor: The boulder jutting out to the right atop can be used to create a top anchor, but only to belay from top. Top-rope anchor not possible.

Exit: Down-climbing is the only current option

FKA: Sohan, Charan Hanumanthappa, Vikram Murthy. July 6th, 2022.

Needs a 60 Meter Rope.

P1: 5.7. 55 meters. 4 + 2 bolts

The first bolt at 40 feet distance, until 2016 was damaged with no hanger. And the climbing parties had to run out the first 80 feet, until the second bolt. Plenty of loose flakes on the slab. But once the first bolt is clipped, you are quite safe.

P2: 5.9. 55 meters. 9 + 2 bolts.

This first section looks steep, but is very well protected, and has plenty of holds. The crux is the first four bolts and then the last two odd bolts, where the section is steeper in gradient. Nothing too technical.

Exit hike is to the right, and takes 60-90 minutes. Ideal to rap off using one of the routes to either side.

Put up in 1991 by Jean Francois Hagenmuller and his wife Natalie, with help of KV Mohan and Rukmangada Raju.

Fist/Offwidth

Located about 50-odd meters immediate east of Stalin’s farm.

To access, walk past the fences and turn east when you encounter a goat-trail, hike up, and then south when you hit the high boulders. The access hike is less than 400 meters long.

Through the squeeze chimney, protect high up (if you don’t have wider gear than that), and out of the offwidth & squeeze and exit right or left.

Rack: Upto #4 cam (The hand-sized cams work best).

Top-Anchor: Cracks to the immediate left, or through the easier exit to the right, trees, further behind.

FKA: Amrit Appaden supported by Shresth Mohan, May 14th, 2022.

A local classic, and a fine intermediate crack line. The continuous fist to finger crack runs for about 180 feet, with a large ficus tree growing out of the rock, exactly at the middle of the route.

Gear: A set of nuts, cams up to #3 (doubles of #0.3 through #1), 70-meter rope, and a dozen alpine draws, and anchor gear.

To get to the Base: If you are hiking up the goat trail towards the BT Pillar, veer left, just as you get about 10 feet to the base, as the trail forks. The trail goes through overgrown undergrowth, over a pile of rocks and finally requires an eight- foot jump from a boulder to a platform. The ground gives away on either sides of the boulder and the platform for about 20-30 feet, so could be a bit hairy for some folks.

P1: 5.9+. 30-35 meters.

Hand crack that narrows down to finger crack, and eventually to a seam. Considering that the left side of the rock overlaps the right side, requires either awkward jamming or laybacking for considerable distance. The first 10-15 meters is the crux, a bit of pump-fest, but well protected.

The crux for us locals is the finger crack section, about 20 meters from the base. If your finger crack technique is solid, no sweat. Note: The cheat here for the new leaders is using a root growing out of the crack. Here’s a bit of a tradition; if you are following, avoid using the root! Leave it for new leaders on this route, if they need it in desperation. The finger lock works just fine. The root seems become fragile after a couple of people have used it on a single day.

The first pitch of Louvre can consume eight-11 placements for most intermediate climbers.

P2: 5.7. 30-35 meters.

Fist crack mostly, and extremely enjoyable and very airy finish to a classic climb. Two sections of 5.7 cruces. •D

The route was initially explored by Philip Coquard, Dominic Danard and Dini (1989), but eventual full route FA was by Mohit Oberoi (1990).

Crack and Slab

Immediately left of Shyam’s Line. Exciting and exposed grade appropriate route.

Left of the BTW crack, starts as a crack radiating right to left, and then a seemingly blank slab, a seam widening into finger, then the hand crack for next solid protection, and then angle left over the exposed slab to the top out past the upper diagonal crack.

Three cruces. One, making the slab move on the crimps and reaching the jug, two, the move through the finger crack to the hand crack, and then the final third over the blank slab to the left of the crack to the next diagonal crack.

A single piton about 15 odd feet up, just after the slab section.

Facing: West

Rack: Small- to mid-sized nuts, finger-, and hand-size pieces. Can be entirely led on nuts and hexes.

Anchor: Hand to fist sized pieces.

Natural Anchor: None

Exit: Off of a tree.

Route credit and FA: Sohan with support from Nikhil Fernandes and Akshay KV, on the 8th of Sep ,2021.

Located exactly below the rap off station, the nasty looking off width with a name that is self-explanatory.

FA: Mohit Oberoi, Kanhai Dutta, Gani & Dinesh Kaigonhalli

About 30 feet to the left of the base of the rap station, you would find this route, going up amidst large pockets. Seasonally the pockets have bird nests. Avoid climbing, if you find birds nesting.

Four bolts and no top anchor station. At some point, a top anchor station needs to be established.

Hands to off-hands

Walk through the slot to the right of the Q-Slide chimney. The book-corner with the off-hands crack. The book corner is created by the two boulders, Mango- Seed leaning onto the high boulder of King-Swing.

Trickier than it looks. The crux is within the first 15-18 feet. There-after easy climb along the corner.

Rack: #1-#4 of BD-sized cams.

Anchor: Trees and cracks. If using the trees, long cordages for top-rope anchors. For the crack, hand- and fist-sized pieces.

Natural Anchors: Trees.

FKA: Amrit Appaden. November 15th, 2022.

Around the corner from Unnamed. Starts on a short boulder. The first bolt can be a bit runout.

*No top anchors.

Finger Crack

The scratch of a finger crack going from left to right to the left of this boulder.

When we initially came across this line, it looked simple enough to get on and knock-off, as we would call our quick ascents. But then, the mud-filled crack was not as easy it had seemed from the ground.

Double-finger and smaller sizes protect the crack, and after the bonsai, the crack narrows to less than the finger-sized seam. And disappears altogether.

Attempting to connect to the crack above through the six-feet of face seems rather stiff. Additionally, the crack formed by the overlapping rock is not confidence inspiring. But a potential line for someone capable of pulling of hard grades and with a solid temperament to connect the two cracks.

Rack: Double-finger sized cams and below. Doubles of them. If top-roping, then micro-nuts or micro-cams.

Exit: Down-climb to the shoots growing out of the bonsai, ghost-knot it and rap- off. Complicated exit. Or connect to the upper crack through free or aid- climbing and traverse right to the top of Twig-Shower route.

Starts on a boulder leaning on the main face, and with a Jug. Slab move at the second bolt is the crux, and thereafter easy climb to the anchors.

Route credit: Sohan Pavuluri, Alok Tater, Satish Venkatchaliah, Srivats, Vipin Kumar, Satnam Singh & Abhijit Sriramreddy. FFA, Abhijit Sriramreddy

Finger Crack

This line, essentially starts on Ghorar Dim, connects to the Bar Stool Traverse, right on the traverse, and then top out through the upper section of the Twig Shower.

See the descriptions for all the three routes to figure out the route and rack beta.

The crux is the connection to the horizontal crack from the Ghorar Dim crack. Nikhil aided it, but it is possible to go free in his words.

FKA: Nikhil Bhandari & Charan H. July 17th, 2022

5.9. 30 meters. 5 + 2 bolts

Mildly runout between bolts 3-5.

FFA: Dhiraj Deka

Finger & Hand crack

The boulder west of the Bar-Stool boulder. The boulder looks as if it has been sliced in half, diagonally. The lower part of the boulder is vertical or overhanging all around it, and then the upper section is a 30-foot long slab, gaining in height from south to the north.

Two crack lines facing on the lower section facing south and the east. The line facing the Bar-Stool Boulder is the Black Lightening.

The upper slab section has three cracks radiating out and connecting to the top. The far-right (east) crack ends half-way up. The far-left crack is filled with grass currently but offers the best protection when the grass is dug out. The overall grade of the route is defined by the lower section, so does not mater which line is taken on the slab. The upper slab creates massive drag on the rope, especially if top-roping the line.

Rack: Fist-sized cams and below. Couple of finger-sized cams.

Anchor: Couple of stout boulders sitting on the edge forming cracks below them

Exit: Down-climb towards the Kanakapura Road side edge of the boulder. And exit off the bolted anchors of the sport routes on the face.

FKA: Sohan with support from Suma Rao & Prasanna Gedannavar. July 10th,

2022.

Crack

One-piece route!.

The diagonally running seam bang in the center of the east face. Thin crack accommodates finger-sized nuts or small cams (green alien).

The crux is getting over the bulge, over the iffy placements, and finding the right hold amongst the slopers. There after just a quick scramble to the top.

Facing: South and east

Rack: Small nuts or cams, and for anchor, if creating a top rope anchor, then a long cordlette.

Anchor: Tree about eight-odd feet from the edge. Or cracks, closer to the edge.

FKA: Sohan and Nikhil Fernandes, Sep 22, 2021

Fingers to hand crack

A few meters to the right of the Back Alley Rodeo.

Starts as a finger crack, expands to hand or hand-cup sized crack, traverse left onto the face, and over the ledge.

Rack: One or two finger-sized pieces, red and blue BD cams.

Anchor: Use the Tree at the back and bring up the second. Or set up the top- rope in the finger crack at the top-out.

Natural Anchor: Trees with long cordages and directionals.

FA: Deepu Gowda with Akhil Menon & Sohan. June 10th, 2022

Squeeze Chimney

A short squeeze around the corner to the right behind the Fist Things First.

Top Anchor: Tree, located about 10 feet from the top.

FKA: Amrit Appaden with support from Sonakshi Mittal. 23rd July, 2022

Corner Offwidth crack

The crack expands from hands to shoulder wide offwidth at the top.

Layback or use other means to attain it.

Rack: Hand-sized pieces to wide-gear (one #6 will help)

Top Anchor: Tree, located about 10 feet from the top.

FKA: Amrit Appaden with support from Sonakshi Mittal. 23rd July, 2022

FA时岩壁下方有一棵巨大板栗树正值花季，因此得名。线路位于鸽壁主岩壁左边往上20米，朝北，夏季阴凉。

线路上方有较粗灌木可以做顶，建议翻上去往里四五米用树做副保，拆站后可以绕树下降。

自建保护站。

起步处有一bolt

起步翻个小屋檐，可以很帅气。

接着是一段layback，放塞子还算舒服；结束是一段完美掌缝。

C4: .4~3(4)

Left buttress of the north face

Same anchor as Don’t Tell Teacher.

Anchor=2 Bolts

开线时下雨，烟雨朦胧仿佛江南。

1. trad FA:徐晓明,吕铁鹏

2. 6 bolts FA:mh

Gear Anchor

off-width style，适合锤炼宽缝技艺，不可错过的好线。FFA定级参考了老君山“dont be a pussy”的定级，先锋攀爬很安全，请务必借至少一个7号C4塞子进行攀爬（BD C4 #7 is necessary）。

Gear: C4 #3~#7, double #5

Center of the north-east face

接近：沿着大湖左边山坡横切朝北走，过了大湖之后上上下下几个坡后朝着岩壁左侧前行，到达岩壁和左边一块20米高大石头中间的经幡处，这里就是岩壁的中间高度位置，往下看你会发现整块岩壁有200多米高。在这里穿上装备，钻过几棵杜鹃树下到达岩壁正下方小草皮，线路在一个很明显的角落斜坡(corner ramp)右边, 起步是好几条长草的平行短缝。

C4: #0.3-#6，两套#0.4-#4

第一段 35米 5.9− 离地四五米后才能放塞子，一路上看着有很多缝可爬，但是能放保护和好爬的不多，顺着阻力最小路线最终翻到一小片草皮上，走到最里面角落处建传统保护。

第二段 50米 5.9 从保护站上方沿角落裂缝放置保护，如果角落裂缝的草清理干净后可以是一条很棒的线路，但现在得沿着右边直上，其中有一段小吓人的烟囱斜坡草地，能力强的也可以选择从它左边斜板直上，据跟攀者描述更吓人，过后继续直上直到你看见顶上草坡，找一棵树建保护站。

下撤 到顶后沿左边（西南）岩脊下至陡峭岩壁处，然后向右折返到一个草坡平台上，随后钻到一片杜鹃林的大石头堆里，最后朝线路起步方向行至起点处收拾装备