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Zanskar 2009/10
India bouldering 2008/9
Rocklands 2007
Hampi 2006/7
Out where? Lahaul 2006
Hampi 2005/6
The Seventh sky, 2005
The Transformation, 2004
Red is the Vision - spiti 2003
The Quest - spiti 2002
Hampi
South Africa/New Zealand
Calpe bridge jump
Lake District
Devil bird & the Anti-logs
Bumblee in the Junglee
Death - A better place?
Malaria in Hampi
Enjoy Dying
Smiling Buddha
Bara Shigari storm
Three Bears
Spiti/Lahaul area
Hampi area
Some areas of the world have a strong fascination for me and this area near to hampi which the locals call jungli has gripped my imagination unlike any other place. Ive tried to do the same thing in all the other supposedly "endless" boulder areas in the world but it just doesnt work in the same way.The people who called those places in Oz,South Africa,New Zealand,America endless have of course never bothered to come here. Its the reason I moved away from the tourist area in 97 to Senapur and then a step further in 99 based myself in Rangapor (Jungli village) as from there I could really start to explore the area checking the valleys one by one just doing long walks on rest days and crossing over to the other side (Benekal) by a different route each time.I knew what I was looking for even then and although my taste of boulders has changed a bit its still the same plan. Quality rock, steep long problems and water nearby in a place where nobody will come to steal my stuff.This year I had found a collection of good boulders in a Jungli ampitheatre which is surrounded by uncrossable ridges and hills just one vague trail going out on a pass full of trees.The boulders are always the first thing then later I will find a suitable cave or make do as best I can.This time it was a very open area with bushes and trees everywhere and out of the middle of all this a perfect raised island of granite with boulders leaning together and on top of each other here and there in that typical hampi way. I was really loving this place because its so open I can hear for miles. The area has many types of wild animals and every night and early morning I could hear things shuffling and crunching around the island.Every day I will just walk in a different direction and find classic problems and projects on a perfect type of granite. Its really good here, not as packed as paraport but, where is? One day I was woken up at about 4 in the morning by this loud growling sound just in the next cave. Its the "kurdi" this huge anteating type of bear which had come to see me. I know him from before. Sometimes he sounds a bit annoyed so I'm always prepared with fire torch and matches nearby.The place is still reachable from the fishpond which is the water source but this year it was all dried up by the end of January so later in the season I had to find another place. On those huge hills between paraport and the lake are hiding some excellent areas where I stumbled on a strange but excellent type of bighouse cave. Only 40 minutes to the canal for water and loads of projects nearby.I'm set up there for some time as the weather starts to get warmer.Nowadays so many climbers are suddenly coming to Hampi which is a really good thing but most are content to just glue themselves in mummys corner for the whole time. The number of new areas and problems coming to light slows to a barely detectable trickle despite the huge number of climbers.With a consumer mentality you can never get away for long from all your own desperate needs like toilet paper,cocacola, chicken burgers,pizza,American sitcoms, beer,decadence and waste.The creative energy which will get you some half decent problems is replaced by a kind of slow death in ghettos of half sick and stoned tourists where doing nothing for days and weeks on end is the norm.The best rock in that area is anyway on the Hampi side of the river in areas which we climbed intensely in 2002/03 but nobody makes the effort to find even those places then they have no chance in the bigger jungli areas.
