The 9 summits of SA

Wow. 8.25 days for all those peaks. Did the record holder fly with a helicopter up to Mafadi?

It would indeed make a difference if you have to return to the start included. In which case....I would NOT start with Mafadi or Kwaduma....

If the time record allows exceeding the speed limit, use of bicycles (or helicopters) or is from a central point to a central point - I won't even try to match the record. Although there is always some twist that can be done on it, like the speed record to do them in height order (which would add hugely to the cost)...

Otherwise the goal of doing all 9 over a few years is overall more expensive, but otherwise easier to arrange and probably more enjoyable...

But as always I will end up doing whatever causes me to get the biggest group of people together, I'm not doing something like this alone.

There was a good article on the speed record in the Do It Now magazine about 6 months ago? You may have some luck if they store archives online.

IIRC, he started with Iron Crown and moved South, ending with Seweweekspoort. He used a bakkie to drive between the "trailheads" of each peak.

Thanks Stijn. For anyone who is interested, the article is at issuu.com/doitnow777/docs/dinmag_vol3_iss3__11?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=FFFFFF&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=51

Article summary:

He did the entire thing on his own. He started the clock at the base of the Iron Crown.

On day 1 he did Iron Crown (Limpopo), De Berg (Mpumalanga), Toringkop (Gauteng) and Nooitgedaght West (North-West), in that order.

Day 2 he did Namahadi via Chain-ladders

Day 3 he was sick and only got to Injisuthi car park, he did no hiking

Day 4 he climbed Mafadi (hiking into the night)

Day 5 he descended Leslies Pass and spent some hours trying to replace his stolen spare tyre. He then drove to the "base of Kwa-Duma".

Day 6 he did Kwa-Duma, he came down in thick mist at night

Day 7 he had a car accident and only got to the Northern Cape at night

Day 8 he did Murch Point in the Northern Cape and drove to Ladismith

Day 9 he did Seweweekspoort Peak in Western Cape. He stopped the clock on the summit.

His total time was 8 days 6 hours 52 minutes. This sounds faster than it is, eg our time on the GT this year was 10 days 6 hours and some change, even though it was clearly an 11 day hike, its because we started at 7AM and finished at 1:30PM, so it sounds like 10.25 days when in fact its 11 days - if you exclude sleeping and breaks we probably did it in about 85 hours, you always spend more than half of your time on these hikes taking breaks, sleeping etc. Even on my recent day hike with Kliktrak we spent 10h30 total on the trail, of which 4 hours were breaks and we didn't sleep over (and none of our breaks exceeded 15 minutes, other than our lunch break), and we almost didn't stop on the return trip - on the summit of Thumb Spur Peak my GPS said we had spent more time taking breaks than walking!

That record is definitely beatable. With a group of 4, 1 driving, 1 helping the driver with directions and helping the driver to not fall asleep, 1 sleeping in the back and 1 sorting out the packs for the next climb (rotating every 2 hours on the longer drives). With the hike over full moon in mid summer you have enough light to do lots in a day.

Day 1: start early with an aim of reaching Sentinal Car Park by the evening after killing the easy 4 peaks (Iron crown can be summited around sunrise - about 5AM in summer). Have a good night sleep in the Sentinal Hut.

Day 2: head up the chain ladders at first light (spend a few days on the escarpment before starting the hike to make sure that my old enemy - altitude sickness - doesn't have a say), climb both Mont-Aux-Sources and Namahadi so that the attempt won't be disputed. With day packs in summer this can be done as a tough day hike. Finish under moon light (no point in pushing it with Mafadi up next, no point in increasing the weight and carrying a tent on day 2 either). Spend the night at Sentinal Hut again.

Day 3: Drive to Injisuthi at first light and try to reach Upper Injisuthi Cave or tent at the top of Leslies for the night

Day 4: Khulu-bag "Fadi's Mother" (my original wording of that sounded fairly dodgy ), head down Leslies and drive to Matatiele, spend the night there

Day 5: Head up Kwa-Duma, starting at first light and aim for a day hike to the top (apparently its dangerous to camp in this area). Sleep in Matatiele again on night 5

Day 6: Head to Murch Point and try to kill it on the day. Considering the fact that we are near the end, drive to Ladismith and find somewhere nice to sleep.

Day 7: Take tents and aim to summit the final peak - after all the timer stops when we reach the top. Take a very slow walk back to the carpark, enjoy the view and take a slow sight seeing trip back to wherever our cars are parked.

I think that's very doable. And thats 2 days ahead of the record, we can even add some time to Mafadi and Kwa-Duma and aim to do it in 8 days. Anyone keen?!

Bearing in mind the account includes 2 full lost days and there is time lost by the fact that the person who did this was driving on his own, had no economy of weight (eg you only need 1 first aid kit for the group, especially when you will usually be back in your car with a few hours)...

Ok, did some research and who ever says that Mont-Aux-Sources is on the Free State border hasn't looked at a recent map. On the Singsby map its shown as being on the border of all 3, but the government survey maps puts it about 1km from the border.

Do not trust anything you see on a 1:50000 sheet. The data is collected by surveyors in the field and the series is riddled with mistakes in nomenclature. They are only human after all and may not have any local knowledge. I have examples of sheets that have twice as many spot heights as a adjacent sheets, due to the lack of standards in data collection. The name 'Drakensberg' crops up in the most inappropriate regions of SA.

Mont-Aux-Sources is a major watershed point and should logically be on the border. The Slingsby maps and the more recent NPB hiking maps have had a litle more research done on them by more knowledgeable people.

BobbyStanton wrote: Mont-Aux-Sources is a major watershed point and should logically be on the border. The Slingsby maps and the more recent NPB hiking maps have had a litle more research done on them by more knowledgeable people.

I guess it comes down to doing M.A.Sources and Namahadi - that was the previous record holders can't argue that we didn't do the peaks they did, and so no one can come back to us with a comment about Namahadi not being the highest point in Free State.

The border that you see on the SG 1:50000 sheets as well as the Ezemvelo hiking maps is not definitive (I read this somewhere so it must be true). It often does not go through the highest point on the watershed so it was probably defined relative to another set of contours in the days when those maps where drawn with older technologies. Perhaps it was created from a smaller scale map which did not align accurately with the current 1:50000 data, eg. the 1:250000 or 1:500000 series. One tends to regard maps as the "official" location of features but they can be wrong.

@BobbyStanton: So whats your view, is Mont-Aux-Sources on the point were KZN, Free State and Lesotho meet, or is it outright on the border of KZN and Lesotho? Usually this statistic wouldn't matter, but in this case it makes a huge difference...

Would also be interested to hear everyone else's view...