Grand Traverse Record Race

ghaznavid wrote: It amazes me what some people can do

Makes me feel lucky that my trip from the room in my digs in Durban, up the Bell and back within 24 hrs felt like a big thing for me at the time. Wouldn't even earn small print these days!

Just found an interesting quote while looking for something else - said by Reinhold Messner in an interview with Rock and Ice :

I’m still a traditional climber. So for me climbing must contain three elements: difficulty, danger and, most important, exposure. Exposure means there is no possibility for outside help. Exposure increases the higher up you are, the more remote your location, and the greater the difficulties encountered higher up.

Even though he wasn't talking about speed hiking, I think the same sentiment is being echoed here.

mnt_tiska wrote: Makes me feel lucky that my trip from the room in my digs in Durban, up the Bell and back within 24 hrs felt like a big thing for me at the time. Wouldn't even earn small print these days!

That is pretty impressive

Can't say I have any genuinely impressive achievements compared to GT in 60 odd hours, Nose in 2h24 odd, Everest solo without supplemented oxygen in 2 or 3 days etc. But it wouldn't be right for each of us to measure ourselves against the abilities of others. For me the GT last year was an indication that I actually could do something of a fair degree of difficulty. If I actually trained properly (which unfortunately I didn't for GT last year - as evidenced by how slow I was and how much I struggled), I think I could do a GT in 6-8 days. It has also made me aware that I can probably manage Everest Advanced Base Camp via one of the non-hutted Nepal routes, I can probably do K2 Base Camp, maybe even summit Cho Oyu, Aconcagua, Dinali etc.

Just because no one outside my family would find my achievements to be sufficiently special to take note, doesn't detract from how significant they are to me, and how much I would enjoy doing them.

I think I have just re-earned my reputation for being wildly off topic

But to me the most impressive record holder of the GT was still Andrew Porter. Not only because his a friend of mine but his 61 hours 24 minutes solo and unsupported GT record is the most true way to do it. If you read in his write up he speaks about both nights being so cold and windy that he resorted to a bivy out of the wind with a space blanket.
I am sure that most of us here have hiked in the mountains alone. And I know that when I have the small thought runs through your head " a slip on the rocks now and I am F ed "
So yes its going to be great to see a pro sponsored athlete shatter the record, and its amazing to think what the human body is able to achive. But where has our explorers gone.

I think they are lost somewhere in Lesotho... sorry, facetious answer there!

But seriously, is Lesotho not the next frontier for us Bergies? I haven't done research on it but there must be quite a few unexplored mountain valleys and first ascents waiting out there?

Just thought I would continue off subject with Ghaz (you are crazy... in a good way)

ASL wrote: But seriously, is Lesotho not the next frontier for us Bergies? I haven't done research on it but there must be quite a few unexplored mountain valleys and first ascents waiting out there?

Perhaps a topic worthy of a new thread? Or I think there was actually an old thread about Kgolos?

I know Intrepid and Thomas have been working on lists of peaks in Lesotho. I am keen to hit all 18/19 (depending on whose list you look at) of the 3400+m peaks, most are in the Southern Berg. The 2 Leqooas are really steep monsters a few km into Lesotho. Actually 3 of Lesotho's 3400+m peaks are on my to do list for 2014 (seeing as 2013 was a year to focus on Giant's Castle, next year is Garden Castle and Didima).

Check out the link below. You can get live updates of the guys progress during the record attempt beginning 21st March or thereabouts (depending on weather)
www.redbull.com/za/en/adventure/events/1331625638350/drakensberg-grand-traverse

And the forecast is looking fantastic! Not a cloud in the sky for the next week... Was chatting to Cobus on the weekend and the preferred start time is 1am on the 24th, aiming to be done by the end of the next day (sub-45h). Can you imagine???

Stijn wrote: the preferred start time is 1am on the 24th, aiming to be done by the end of the next day (sub-45h). Can you imagine???

from 3 times Comrades finisher, "NO". My imagination has failed!

Haha - funnily enough, the distance is equivalent to about 2.5 Comrades!