Mafadi FKT

I was lucky enough to witness, in part, a fast ascent of Mafadi just before Christmas. The ascent was part of the 9 peak challenge. The achievement is being reported more widely now:
www.featsa.co.za/2013/01/9-peaks-in-4-days/
At the time the guys asked me to hold fire on the news until it was reported elsewhere.

When I spoke to these guys just after the descent they couldn't have been more relaxed. You can see the times in the attachment here:

So 20.5h for Mafadi and 4 days 18 hours for all 9 peaks... nice!

and a lot of the 20.5 hrs at night!

Very impressive! And at the same time - darn, I wanted to break that record!

I think 4 days 18 hours is about where this record should be, its tough, but doable. Beyond me though.

I can still beat that Mafadi time though, I think 18.5 hours is possible from the other side via Judge Pass. I may have another go at it in June this year. I calculate that if I leave the car park at 2:30AM I can be back at the car park by 9PM. Anyone keen?

Ghaz - 2:30am start? Those are the times I'd choose to go. You can spin through the good paths in the dark and deal with the gnarly stuff in the light. Crucially you'll have the pyschologically difficult bits during the core of the day.

The rivers were really full when those guys did the 20 hour trip & it was at night mostly. Those things alone would have slowed them down. Plus they were in 9 peak rather than one peak mode so not killing themselves unduly.

You have to be lucky with the weather of course and that means being willing to have several goes.

mnt_tiska wrote: Ghaz - 2:30am start? Those are the times I'd choose to go. You can spin through the good paths in the dark and deal with the gnarly stuff in the light. Crucially you'll have the pyschologically difficult bits during the core of the day.

Last attempt we had we were trying to simulate how it would work out on 9 summits, taking into account driving from Harrismith to Giants in the morning. If weather had been better I think we would have broken Kobus' record.

The theory in June is that its pre-snow, nice and cool, stable weather. And by not sleeping we don't need a pack.

If I remember correctly our times last time where roughly:
9AM left car park
10AM first break at 2100m
11:30AM reached Bannerman Hut (this is where we started to fall behind)
1PM reached Judge Pass
5PM reached the top of the pass dehydrated, waterless and in a storm
6:30PM started descending Judge Pass after a good day of hiking, even if we didn't make the target
1AM reached Bannerman Hut after all 3 of us fell asleep on the contour path - a few times!

I would aim to do it like this (taking into account that realistically we will probably only leave at 3:30AM - you know how it always goes):
3:30 leave
6 reach Bannerman Hut
7 reach Judge Pass
11 reach top of Judge Pass
12:30 3451m! and lunch
1:30 start heading down
5:30 reach the bottom of the pass
7 reach Bannerman hut
10 reach car park.

Without a sleeping bag and a self inflating mattress (2kg), gas stove and overnight food (1kg) we should be able to do it.

Very impressive stuff.

2000m ascent and subsequent descent. That is fast.

It may be broken yet again, but certainly not by me...

Thanks for posting our hike. Here is a summary for those who want to break the time:
Date Time Duration Progressive Time Distance
Injisuthi 23/12/2013 01:00 PM 0
Marble Bath 23/12/2013 03:45 PM 02:45 02:45 8
Start of Leslies 23/12/2013 05:56 PM 02:11 04:56 13
Top of Leslies 23/12/2013 08:26 PM 02:30 07:26 15
Sleep 23/12/2013 10:17 PM 01:51 09:17 15
Top of Mafadi 24/12/2013 12:31 AM 02:14 11:31 21
Top of Leslies 24/12/2013 03:03 AM 02:32 14:03 30
Sleep 24/12/2013 04:28 AM 01:25 15:28 30
Marble Baths 24/12/2013 07:26 AM 02:58 18:26 36
Injisuthi 24/12/2013 09:27 AM 02:01 20:27 43

Happy hiking

attached is a better format of the times

better format of times attached