Waterfall Rappelling at VIHI waterfall (Kasara)

Date: 26th July 2009

Height: Approx 120 ft

Grade: Medium

Rappelling also known as abseiling is a method of a quick and safe descend after a climb. It’s an act of descending a mountain face by sliding down a rope, which is attached to a body harness and fastened to an overhead projection, with sufficient friction provided as to make the speed of descent controllable.
It’s the best exercise to overcome the fear of height. Feel the thrill of suspension at the height of about 100 feet’s. Come experience the incredible feeling of success and accomplishment when you touch the ground.

I got a massive response for this event, 13 of my friends including me registered for this event. This was arranged by vRangers trek group in Mumbai. By now i was well acquainted with Trek mates and vRangers group. Members from myside includes eniyan, radhika, vinay agarwal, Jaichander and his friends. Overall there are around 60 ppl who registered.

The plan

Since it is difficult for 60 ppl to finish the waterfall rappelling in a day, we were split into two groups, 13 ppl in first group who were supposed to do early morning waterfall rappelling and the rest in the morning. I and vinay agarwal were part of first group and reached kasara at night 2 am, by last train to kasara. An omni van was arranged for our traveling from kasara to vihi village, which is around 45 mins traveling distance.

To reach vihi village, one has to take the Nashik highway and should take an right turn at half an hour distance from kasara. We were accommodated in a village school with no electricity. The night was filled with silence and freezing breeze. We sojourned in the school and got up as early as 6:30 am. After a chai session, i went straight to the waterfall.

The Village

Waterfall

The vihi waterfall originates from an unknown destination, and i'm in no mood to figure that out. One need to cross a plain water and also a farm field before reaching a main waterfall. All arrangements were being made ready by vRangers and there are two ropes descending down. So It is convenient for two people to rappel at a time. Safety instructions along with introduction round were finish in quick session.

Quick Tour of Vihi waterfall and surroundings

Rappelling has one main rope, which one has to hold to descend and the other supporting rope for safety purpose, which will be controlled by the instructor or expert.

My Rappelling experience

As i said, there are two ropes, one near the waterfall and the other one somewhat far away. I wanted to rappel in the one near the waterfall to enjoy the thrilling experience and also the waterfall. To my unfortunate, the rope broke before i am about to proceed, so i left with no option other other than to rappel with the other one.

First few steps are little scary, and i fell once due to my slippery sandals. I advice one should wear sandals or shoes with good grip. Afterwards kept my feet wide enough and took baby steps, my stomach started hurting because i guess the safety rope is on not well positioned at the hip. Slowly and steadily i descended down and made sure i am not slipping again. Finally i succeeded and reached the base. Even now i regret being not did using the other rope.

Plain water leading to a small waterfall

Awesome Main Waterfall

By the time morning batch has arrived and i didn't get any second chance to rappel by the next rope. I asked Sudhir, the organizer, and he said i need to wait till 5 p.m. or till everyone finished with their round, whichever is earlier. At that time, i realized there is no second chance.

Rest of the time, about 3 to 4 hours was spent in the water under the waterfall and it was amazing experience. The shrilling sound, accompanied with drizzle and rain made it enjoyable. I was shivering almost every minute spent at the pool.

At the bottom - Felt like Heaven

I also spent some swimming in the plain water too. After that we had our lunch, and started at return journey.

Return Journey

Return journey is accompanied with many mishaps. First we missed the kasara train by 10 min. Kasara is not a normal local station, so the train frequency is almost once every 2 hours. Somehow we caught the local passenger train (Local mumbai tickets is valid in passenger train), which stopped around 10 - 15 min in almost every stop and it took us around 3.30 hrs to reach Dadar.

Final words

Rappelling is a thrilling experience which one need to experience it to understand. I hurt myself badly on that day, fell down 5 to 6 times (one in waterfall and other times on various stones). So sandals are no no for this event. I enjoyed more time spending near the waterfall, the rain, breeze, drizzle , melody, river crossing and more...

Hope all trekkers has the minimum gut required for Rappelling.