Epic Day Hikes

With a map like that I can use GE to get approximate GPS coordinates, the main thing I am interested in at the moment would be the spot heights. Murch's khulu list has 22 Free State khulus, I now have a fair idea of their locations.

How recent are the spot heights on the map? Murch got all his heights on the old maps, but I don't know the source of his Free State heights. Most differ by a bit - the main issue being Namahadi and Flat Top (I think Flat Top is the 3 spot heights in the 3247-3266 range west of Namahadi Pass), Murch listed them as 3275 and 3274 respectively, so a minor height change changes the highest point in the province - it could change my highest points in provinces route, but (like Murch's list) this map puts Namahadi higher...

ghaznavid wrote: ...so a minor height change changes the highest point in the province - it could change my highest points in provinces route, but (like Murch's list) this map puts Namahadi higher...

Your problem above reminded me of a funny article I came across online (well, funny if you're into stats at least...): www.hills-database.co.uk/probMunros.html

Enjoy!

If your objective is to climb Munros, or Corbetts, or some other named list, then fine; but if it is to climb all Scottish 3000ft hills, all English 2000s, or whatever, then a "probabilistic" approach will at least give you confidence of having achieved your goal.

Lol... Just picturing climbing every 2999 and 2998m peak just in case... There is always an issue of subjectivity in things like this. Personally I don't plan on climbing all 176 khulus on my khulu list - even if I took up rock climbing I would not try Mponjwane, Mnweni Pinnacles, Triplets etc.

The old issue of whether or not a 2999.5m peak is a khulu comes to mind, in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter. A 2999m peak and a 3005m peak should have equally impressive views, and views are the reason to climb khulus, munros or pretty much anything (except maybe 8000ers).

On the bright side, there are very few khulus within 2m of 3000, so the list should be fairly accurate...

Does anyone know if Mafadi has been done in 24 hours before? The time starting at whichever car park you start from and ending back at any car park.

If someone is aware of a speed record on this, it would be fun to know prior to trying it next month

I know Mafadi has been done in 20 hours before... starting from the Sentinel Car Park!!! By a certain Mr Andrew Porter. That't right - he covered the 93km to Mafadi along the Grand Traverse record route in 20h before taking his first sleep on his 61h solo traverse.

As for the up and down from Injasuti or Giants - I'm sure there have been a few speedy trips up and down over the years. None documented that I know of. Of course you're welcome to establish a record for the rest of us to have a crack at...

Looking at the Mnweni Marathon record times (4h30ish for the 38km via Mnweni and Rockeries Pass), if you unleash some of the top trail-runners on Mafadi, you're bound to get times of about 6-7 hours.

Thats crazy - although that was wise on his part, kill the easy half of the GT before sleeping. Lets face it, north of Mafadi the only hard ridges are the Yodelers to Botlolong Ridge and maybe the Cleft ridge...

The goal will be 24 hours, but my main aim is to get a full GPS track for 9 summits' Mafadi leg and to test the hybrid route - so any longer is partially acceptable and gives us something to beat on the record attempt. I expect I will come to a conclusion that we should rather drop down Judge Pass than traverse the Popple and Senqebethu ridges, but it will depend on how far we get before sunset...

Funnily enough, I've always seen Champagne Castle as where the GT record route (North to South) gets significantly easier. And many others agree. Remember, the optimal record route bypasses many of those ridges you talk about using shortcuts through Lesotho:

- the first is from the summit of Mafadi. It skips the Popple, Bannerman and Durnford ridges using a Lesotho valley to the SW which rejoins the escarpment using the Jarateng Valley just North of the Long Wall ridge and Giant's Castle.

- the second is the Mokothlong valley which heads inland from Giant's Castle along some great paths, with the next ridge to be climbed being Thabana Ntlenyana, a significant climb of 700m but after close to 20km of flat paths, who's complaining!?

And yes, some of the ridges in the South are big and steep, but they're separated by much longer valley sections than the more regular climbs in the North. For me, the toughest section of the entire traverse is the Elephant to Pampiring section - 4 steep climbs of Elephant (ok that one is quite easy), Cleft, Ndumeni & Pampiring in the space of just 20km. Just no time to recover before the next one hits you. Giant's Castle was also pretty tough for me, especially since you have to head in the wrong direction for 2km to tag it before doubling back and continuing with the route South.

That Durnford ridge is a killer! Memories of day 5 of GT - just before the GT became really awesome as I stood on top of Popple.

Ok - how to do the speed record makes a bit more sense now. I know that you can walk around the Durnford ridge, but its far into Lesotho.

What about the ridges below Thabana Ntlenyana? I know you don't need to do any peaks on those for the speed record, but is there a feasible route around them? Especially No Mans and Hodgesons. That Mashai ridge must be deadly after 60 hours of walking!

Hodgson's is a biggie but we took the tiger line from the Sani flats - so the saddle you go over is a bit lower than the one right at the escarpment edge. No Man's, Verkyker, Mashai (ouch) and Walkers all have to be ticked off - but by then you can smell the finish line! At that stage, I was also on a diet of 2 Myprodol every 4 hours to get my knees to bend without too much pain...

Ouch! I think Mashai ridge is more painful after 200km of walking. Despite feeling sick etc and having an early start (and basically not having breakfast) on day 2 after my not-so-good day 1 on GT this year, not to mention a small snow fall on the way up, I was 3rd up the Mashai ridge (this basically never happened on the entire trip, I was usually last - by far!). I actually really enjoyed that particular ridge and didn't find it too difficult. Maybe that's why I think of the No Man's Ridge as such a monster!

Any way - the quickest I know of so far for Mafadi is Kobus Besler on his 9 summits record with 27 hours and some change. That was via Leslie's and with 3 hours sleep...