GT2015/2016: Climb every mountain

@AndrewR: here's Dave's email to me regarding the record.

Dave Gay wrote: Hi Jonathan

Well done to Mike. I don't see any reason why this is not a full GT in every sense. The only difference is that my students went down Bushman's Pass to complete their traverses. This may have added some distance but in Mike's case this would have been made up by climbing the peaks.

For school awards purposes I had to specify criteria, and these are quite simple:

1. The participant has to carry his share of the food and equipment, as well as all of his personal equipment, for the entire distance.
2. The participant must also do his share of the work involved in cooking, collecting water, and setting up and breaking camp.
3. No vehicle lifts or animal transport are allowed (e.g. along the road from Black Eagle Pass to the Sani border post in Lesotho).

Essentially, these criteria imply that if a participant gets injured or takes ill and must be helped, his attempt will not be recognised for awards purposes. As for sharing of food and drinks, that happens anyway.

The MBC has now set a minimum age of 18 years for a GT, based on the knowledge of our members who are doctors and physiotherapists. They maintain that permanent damage can be done to young joints - especially considering the weights that must be carried. Two of the four GT youngsters I have been involved with did indeed complain of sore knee joints afterwards, so I would discourage participation in GTs UNLESS the teenager is assisted weight-wise or he is very mature physically.

Regards,
Dave

Photos will follow soon.

Thanks for the write up and photos.

Well done guys and congratulations Hobbit.

Well done Hobbitt and Ghaz.... Something to be very proud of!

Well done Hobbit...a huge achievement and Ghaz for making it possible!!

Great read & pics, thanks.

Was thinking that hobbit may soon have to change his name to 'longshanks' or 'legolas' or something similar...

andrew r wrote: Was thinking that hobbit may soon have to change his name to 'longshanks' or 'legolas' or something similar...

Perhaps

Funny how nicknames stick, even when they no longer make any sense. The conversation at one point on the trip was about how the Hobbits were called "Halflings" by the Númenóreans because they averaged around 3ft6 while the Númenóreans averaged 7ft. The joke from there being that I must be the shortest Númenórean ever (phonetically similar to Newman) and he must be the tallest Hobbit ever.

The following is a list of the peaks included in the current record and previous record for most GT khulus. I am putting the list in a spoiler so that the names are on this thread, but don't clutter this thread.


GT khulu record rules

There are no formal rules on what is required for the GT khulu record. I propose:
1) it must be a GT, not just a hike. It may be done in either direction and as long as it includes a point north on the escarpment of Tugela Falls and a point on the escarpment south of Mzimude Peak, it constitutes a GT. There is no reason to specify proximity to the escarpment edge as staying further inland makes it harder to bag khulus.
2) it must be entirely on foot, so no driving down the Black Mountain road.
3) if you go past a town (e.g. Sani village), you may buy food, supplies or anything else you need/want
4) no limit on resupplies or stashes. I guess one could argue that you could make a GT quite easy by stashing each day's food along the way, but the odds of most of it being there when you arrive is low, and the work required to do this would be sufficiently epic that you would probably deserve some other GT record recognition!
5) no time limit. The longer a GT is, the more logistically difficult and the heavier your pack is.
6) Any summit on the current khulu list or above 3000m that is in SA or on the SA/Lesotho border with 50+m of topographical prominence counts as a khulu for the purposes of this record.
7) in the event that the khulu list is modified, the record is updated to match. The date of change of record holder is the date on which the new list is published (i.e. it is not backdated).