UKC

We recently came across a short video of Ganesha 8b+ - India's hardest sport route at Badami, Karnataka in the south of the country. The line was bolted in 2010 by top French climber Alex Chabot. Projecting the climb in the film is 22 year-old Abhishek Mehta - one of India's top speed climbers, who was also keen to push his sport grade outdoors.

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In reply to UKC News:

What a desperate looking finish, only for the very flexible!

In reply to UKC News:

Tip top Abhishek Mehta, great work

In reply to UKC News:

Great effort by Abhishek.

I take it there's not much other climbing in India. This is the only sport climbing I've seen there - and there's quite a bit of footage of Ganesha. There's Hampi and one other bouldering place where Klem Loskott made a film about some time ago.

In reply to UKC News:

Strong Olympic contender by the sounds of it! Speed, Bouldering & Lead already up to a good grade. Give that man some funding!


>I take it there's not much other climbing in India

There's surely loads - they've got the foothills of the Himalaya in the North! Just maybe undeveloped and tricky weather...

In reply to UKC News:

Another great video of the climb should anyone be interested.

youtube.com/watch?v=Y3UDkcH5KzI&

In reply to Durbs:

There's definitely loads of potential for all sorts of climbing in india, as with a lot of things in the mountains though the rock faces often get ignored in favour of the peaks, there's also the logistical problems of getting there in the first place.

In reply to Fraser:

Great effort, but I'm gonna avoid that one, i don't want any trad top outs at the end of 8b+!

I bet the monkeys will throw something at a climber there one day too. Nuts, or rocks, or fruit.!

In reply to stp:

There is loads of potential and quite a lot of established routes in the Bangalore area. I guess we might not hear loads about them on here because any URLs from India (and China) are blocked from posting on UKC (as I found out when I was there!).
Not sure if you will be able to access this but the Bangalore Climbers Facebook gives some idea of all the routes in the area:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BangaloreClimbingAndOutdoorsGroup/

In reply to Guy Atkinson:


Any suggestions as to where?

I did see this recently:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQQP4TvDs7w/?taken-by=zvadaz

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQQZXfYj0gD/?taken-by=zvadaz

In reply to djwilse:

That works thanks. Interesting to see. Looks like some cool and interesting slab climbing but not really world class - unlike the Ganesha are.

In reply to Durbs:


Totally agree. He seems ridiculously talented. Looks like his redpointing is self-taught. And a belayer cum film-maker - properly old skool!

If he went to Europe and climbed with people operating in the F8c to F9a category, my guess is that he'd be as good as them in a couple of years.

Mick