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April 2013
Dusty Trails
Pictures: Nishant Ratnakar (at the fort) and Dev S Sukumar (at Jog Falls)
Matchless courage under pressure J Jyothi Raj’s free solo of Jog Falls, despite a nasty fall midway through the climb, was a revelation of his skill and steely nerves, writes Dev S Sukumar
yothi Raj’s free solo of Jog Falls (830 feet) must count among the most courageous feats in the history of climbing in India, and is probably comparable with similar attempts across the world. The Jog Falls is one of India’s most spectacular tourist attractions, featuring four columns of water (‘Raja’, ‘Rani’, ‘Rocket’ and ‘Roarer’) that barrel down a cliff on to the rocks over 800 feet below. According to Wikipedia, it is the second highest free waterfall in Asia. The selftrained climber from Chitradurga has climbed along different routes of the Jog a few times earlier – he was thrice called to retrieve corpses that were lodged on the rocks and irretrievable by other means. But Saturday (6 April 2013) was special – he would be climbing along a water column, defying the oncoming torrent of water and the treacherous, slippery rocks.
True to his style, he was equipped with nothing but inexpensive plastic-soled shoes. More than the technical difficulty of the climb (he graded some sections as 7A-plus), what was required perhaps was sheer courage, a nerveless ability to ignore the fact that he was hanging on exposed rock hundreds of feet high with nothing to cushion a fall. “I was never scared,” he’d say later. “The view was spectacular.” There were times during the three-hour long climb when it looked like he would not make it. The most nerve-wracking of these moments came when he was approximately 600 feet up. Attempting a traverse under the column of water on slippery rock, Jyothi Raj’s grasp slipped and he fell heavily some 20 feet down, disappearing behind the water. There was stunned silence among the 50-odd spectators as he failed to reappear for some 20 minutes. Jyothi had fractured his left leg less