Padargad Trek Blog ❤️Chimney Climbing makes is exciting

Padargad is the smaller fort in the Bhimashankar range. I had done Bhimashankar trek thrice before i found that the rocky hill visible enroute was actually Padargad fort. While researching about it I found that it can only be reached through a very narrow chimney climb. This Padargad trek blog captures that adventurous trek day. Similar adventures like this one at the end of this post.

How To Reach Padargad fort from Mumbai & Pune

Padargad fort lies in the Bhimashankar range. Bhimashankar & Padargad trek have the same base village of Khandas. In fact half the trek route for Padargad till a well is same as Bhimashankar Ganesh Ghat route.

Nearest railway station is Karjat. From Karjat there are two ways to reach Khandas

• Take direct tumtum to Khandas – this is costly to hire entire rickshaw
• Take ST till Kashele. At Kashele you can get shared trax for Rs25 per seat till Khandas. From Kashele you can also get a private tumtum for Rs 250 till Khandas

From Khandas the trek starts after 2.5 kms walk on tar road. You can request the driver to drop you till taht point saving your half an hour. A village called Kathewadi is enroute this 2.5kms. I parked my bike here at Mr Ravindra Paradhi’s home ( 8379804326 ). If you request he can prepare some home made food for you. His father sells lemon juice at Ganesh mandir on the trek route

Padargad fort History & Difficulty

Padargad was used to keep an eye on the Peth/ Kothaligad region & to monitor movement on karjat – bhimashankar route. What can you see at the fort- 5 caves, 7 water tanks, rock cut stairs & nearby forts visible . I personally wanted to enjoy the chimney climb

Padargad trek & bhimashankar Ganesh Ghat route are the same till the diversion after a well. From the well left goes to Bhimashankar & right goes to Padargad through a small jungle. At the end of the jungle is 40-50 steep climb over rocks to reach the chimney. Chimney itself is the most difficult part. Above the chimney is an 80 degeree climb to reach the top. Though a rope is tied at the 80 degree climb it still remains risky.

Because of the above reasons i term this trek to be DIFFICULT & RISKY. For chimney climb scratches on hands & knees are expected. Tshirt might get torn at places as well. Hence Padargad should not be attempted by beginners without guidance. Should be avoided in monsoon due to slippery conditions.

Best time would be WINTERS

Padargad Trek blog: TheFreeBird’s story

I did Bhairavgad Moroshi trek last week. It was the riskiest trek i had done till date. I never had so much adrenaline pump in my life. To match that level of excitement i decided to go to Padargad . Usse mujhe kick milegi . Vehicles can directly reach parking lot of Bhimashankar / Padargad over tar road from where the trek starts however i parked my bike at my friends acquaintance. I picked up my friend from Karjat and drove all the way to Khandas and to Kathewadi to park my bike at Mr Ravindra Paradhi’s house.

The initial trek route for the first 90 minutes is the same as Bhimashankar ganesh ghat route. We took first stop at Ganesh Mandir to meet Ravindra’s dad selling lemon juice. After the stop we continued on the familiar bhimashankar route to reach the well

The sun was making our day miserable. The lemon juice effect had withered off & now i looked forward to reach the well quickly. At the well i was happy to have found the tastiest cold mountain water. We two drank like camels. The water was a like a miracle liquid which recharged us for the remaining trek. After the well we reached the diversion to take left for Padargad. We arranged few stones here to mark the diversion. We then climbed for 15 minutes through a forest canopy to reach the rocky climbs. I have always liked trees and walking under the cool shadow always calms me down. Suddenly spotting a snake / boa got me excited as I started to look at everything much more carefully as then onwards every twig and branch started appearing as a snake

Once we reached the Padargad fort ‘s rocky base I could see the exposed surface. The 40 degree ascend had lots of loose rocks. This would be a monsoon water stream for sure

After negotiating the 40 degree climb finally we reached the chimney. From here one can spot the entire Bhimashankar range from Siddhagad, Nagphani, Shidi Ghat , Ganesh ghat & your own trek route from the base.

Chimney Climbing at Padargad

Before reaching the chimney there is steep climb through a narrow khind ( col). This climb my heart racing as a trailer to how the actual chimney climb would feel.

On reaching the chimney I noticed that it was a 12-14ft high chimney with a gap barely enough to fit a person. Chimney is very narrow & is quite troublesome for taller & bulky guys. I could barely squeeze in and had to walk sideways to reach the actual chimney. The normal chimney climbing techniques in basic rock climbing course seemed to be not useful as there was not enough space to move my feet. So i just wriggled my way to the top.

Bro Tip: Use you back to push the wall back and use your hands/ feet for applying counter force to move upwards. Without the back support it becomes a difficult rock climbing patch without much space to manoeuvre properly

Initially i tried some rock climbing without proper back support but found it very hard to climb. Later on I started to apply my back & hand pressure to hold me at a place and then slowly moved upwards. Slowly i got hang of it as I climbed to the top. You can see my climbing video here

After climbing the chimney there is a 80 degree rock patch which one has to climb. It can be easily climbed since there are many holds & feels like a ladder. After this climb there are few caves . I decided to visit them while returning. Just ahead of those caves is another rock climb where intial steps have disappeared but are in proper condition at the top

After these stairs we had finally reached the top of Padargad. There are few water tanks at top but dont have good water. As it was getting quite hot we moved ahead towards the cave on the other side where we had planned lunch.

Towards the south of Padardgad one can spot Kothaligad, Jambrung & Khetoba. Due to such vantage location Padargad was used to keep an eye on the Peth region. As we moved ahead towards the bigger cave the route moves narrowly through this rocks

After walking through all the heat as I reached the cave it felt very pleasant. The cave was very cold and the cool wind made it even more enjoyable. The cave is large enough to occupy 5 people comfortably. From the cave one can spot the entire Bhimashankar range – Siddhagad, shidhi ghat, ganesh ghat & nagphani. I am pretty sure the soldiers would have fought amongst themselves to get a posting in this cave . After all the trekking we enjoyed our lucnh here. With the view & the wind the food tasted even more delicious

Towards the west of this cave is Tungi fort ( Not to be confused with Mangi-Tungi fort at Nashik or the Tung fort near Lonavla ). Since the route towards the west side had become fairly risky due to a rock fall we decided against going there. We moved around the fort to see the historical remains.

In january only one of the water tanks had water- tank at the base of the first pinnacle . After moving through the fort we started our descend. We stopped at Ganesh Mandir for lemonade. Having cooled of a bit our next stop was at Paradhi’s house where his grand sons found a million reasons to laugh

The sun had started to set and the weather became colder. I put on my jacket & hopped on my bike for a ride home. The first trek of 2018 was a grand success. Off towards home.

Bye !!

That’s it for the Padargad trek blog.