Drakensberg FKTs - Definition and Rules
Moderator Note: this thread was branched from:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/8-drakensberg-hiking/55823-sterkhorn-fkt.html
For all those who are as confused as me FKT = Fastest Known Time I had to "Google " it.
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I'm pretty sure I could challenge for SKT!
“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”
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Consider Yosemite - we all know that Alex Honnold and Hans Florine hold the Nose speed record (2h24 I think - quite amazing considering it is about 1km of vertical climbing at a rather high difficulty). This record is well known, but the region has hundreds of other documented records.
The established Berg speed records I know of right now are:
- The 6 different GT speed records (group vs solo, S-N vs N-S and overall solo + overall)
- Mafadi
- Mponjwane from Mponjwane cave to summit
- Column
- Mnweni Marathon
- Mont Aux Sources Marathon
One could argue there is an Ifidi/Icidi Pass speed record as well.
Records that I think would be quite justified:
- Namahadi
- Mont Aux Sources
- Mount Amery
- Cathedral Peak (perhaps the full loop of the Bell Traverse could also be included in this record)
- Cleft Peak
- Champagne Castle
- Sterkhorn
- Giants Castle
- Thabana Ntlenyana
- Rhino
- Thaba Ngwangwe
- Knuckles
There are others that could do with a record - but a record is arbitrary if no one else goes for it.
There are plenty of Berg records that can take a good hammering - Andrew's most khulus on a GT could be hammered quite "easily" - it would just take forward planning and some time. Bearing in mind that we could have hammered 10 extra khulus if the weather was clear for the middle of the trip. So if you started a GT via Dagga Nek Pass and made sure you tagged a khulu on basically every escarpment ridge, 63 would be quite beatable with just taking on a few of the easier freebies (e.g. Bond, Erskine, Potterill, Thumb Spur, Tseketseke etc). Also remember that we only had 1 resupply, but as per the rules for a khulu bagging GT - you are allowed 2 resupplies.
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www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/drakensberg-trips/55634-trip-report-mt-amery-via-beacon-buttress-gully.html#61485
9 hours from Car park to peak to car park. Dammit why did I enjoy the views on top for an hour..
This can be broken very very easily
FKT in this case = fastest I know of.
@ intrepid, stop with this (multiple summits) nonsense please.... I only climbed the highest Mr. Amery summit that day, your suggestion means I have to log my not so little weight up there again..arghh
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Beacon Buttress Gully from bottom (trail junction) to top where Eastern Buttress comes into view: 10 minutes, 37 seconds. Sunday 7 June 2015.
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An important characteristic of a record is that it must be beatable. For many years there was the record for "highest mountain climbed by man" - but when Everest fell, this record died as it was not actually possible to beat it. IMO a "highest"/"most" record becomes a speed record at the point the point that beating it becomes impossible. The Nose Speed record is noted as having been something like 45 days at one point (after the FA).
Note that it must become impossible to beat for this to occur - i.e. even though there are few people that can really have a good go at Andrew's 23 peaks in 24 hours, it is possible that it can be broken. By contrast, if someone climbs 183 khulus on a GT (it would be a roughly 700km GT with climbing gear and no more than 2 resupplies allowed as per the rules), the record would cease to be a "most" record - and yes, I do realise this is unlikely to ever happen.
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fastest known timeRiaang wrote: Pardon my ignorance, but what is a FKT?
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An interesting point related to an FKT as far as I am aware is that it is for something for which no race exists. Thus, Mnweni Marathon and the Mont-aux-Sources race have course records but not a FKT.
The course record part introduces a concept I feel is important to maintain for a FKT, namely a specific set of rules. Which need to be complete, obvious and simple. The speed GT rules are a good example of where they work well. We all follow them because they are simple and make sense. Have a look one day though at the rules for the 9 highest peaks in the 9 provinces record, and they are a mess. But, that is also a much tougher challenge logistically, and hence extra and funny rules need to apply.
As an example I could claim a FKT for Sterkhorn from the contour path and back. But, this is silly. This is why for my Mafadi trips, I specifically used the mountain register, as this is fix.
I think in the end that it is worthwhile recording the times and rules for that challenge. Overtime, some will be repeated and others not.
I feel that the best challenges will allow for your own choice of route. The idea of using the mountain register makes sense as that will not move about
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