I am commenting on this thread after 9 years because we had recently been
offroading into the clouds at Choma Kunda as well
Five jeeps from Mysore are at Virajpet on a rainy Sunday. We make our way towards Choma Kunda and catch up with Chethan from V5 offroaders after having to pack some snacks since we could not have a proper lunch as it was already past 12 PM.
With Chethan leading the way in his SPOA
MM540, Muthanna's
petrol Kaiser, Avinash's
petrol MM550, Praveen's
diesel Kaiser, Manu's brand new
Thar DI and my
Thar CRDe followed. After driving through the beautiful winding roads of Coorg, we reach a small stream crossing.
Once we went through that, we reached a slightly larger stream crossing where we all had fun going through.
Praveen's Diesel Kaiser going through Avinash's Petrol MM550 going through My Thar CRDe going through the stream
We went through it again while on the way back because it was so much fun with the steep exit now being the entry point. Here is the video of the same. Note that Muthanna's Petrol Kaiser does it in 2WD. But the exit is slushy and he shifts to 4WD then.
Waiting for the other jeeps to finish the stream crossing. We then proceeded towards Kabbe hill and the fog made it look like it was a path to heaven.
The wet muddy trail starts from here and in no time the uphill ascent gets really steep. Manu decides to leave his brand new Thar DI behind and the remaining five jeeps march ahead. We then arrive at this steep incline which has steep mountain faces on either side and the route is full of big ruts and massive potholes filled with rainwater as it was continuously raining.
I think this is the same incline where one of the jeeps in Samurai's post got stuck. Chethan proceeds to climb the complicated incline which has gotten very slippery due to the rain and gets stuck after one of the potholes was deeper than expected. Chethan finally manages to climb the incline. The video link of the climb: Next, Praveen gives it a shot with his diesel Kaiser by taking a slightly different approach. But he too gets stuck as the ruts and potholes are simply too deep for non-lifted jeeps.
Since the other route parallel to this was too risky since it was too close to the steep mountain face edge, we decided to use the wide rut between these trails as the line to go up. In case the jeep loses traction here climbing the incline and slips back, it would get its wheels stuck in the big rut and not go rolling down the steep mountain face. Since we had 2 winches, we went ahead with the idea and it worked!
After Praveen's diesel Kaiser made it up the incline, my Thar CRDe was next. It climbed without any drama as this line was so much easier.
A perspective as to how steep this incline was mid-way. Notice the person climbing is
almost perpendicular to the spirit level if there was one.
After my Thar, Avinash's petrol MM550 comes up. Then comes up Muthanna's petrol Kaiser.
This steep incline took up a lot of time and we finally proceeded to reach the top. The route got narrow with a steep mountain face on the left side with ruts also on the left side.
All the jeeps proceeded up the hill hugging the mountain wall on the right-hand side. We finally reached the top. But, the visibility on the top was extremely poor due to the fog. It was still raining and was very windy. It got really cold due to the wind chill. It was group picture time and almost the whole team is present here.
We spent some time there and decided to head back as it was already nearing 5 PM and we all had to head back to Mysore on the same day. On the way down, Avinash's petrol MM550 ran out of petrol and was quickly refilled.
We then reached the steep stretch with a lot of potholes and ruts. Chethan took the line on the other side of the ruts this time and went down the decline skillfully. Avinash was next. But close to the end,
Avinash's petrol MM550 got stuck in one of the potholes. As the recovery was on a decline and not an incline it was done in one stroke.
I came down the decline next and thanks to Chethan's excellent spotting, I was able to manoeuvre through the potholes without getting stuck. Soon, the other two Kaisers followed with no drama and we were off towards Virajpet. We had piping hot coffee on the way to Virajpet, we saw Chethan off and we headed back to Mysore.