The Maloti Drakensberg Transfrontier Challenge Blog

Running the Dragons Back higher and longer

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First Ascent Fusion 900 3 Replies

Hey guys, hope all are well, well i bought a First Ascent Fusion 900 beginning of last year for an attempt on kili which to my disappointment never came due to my knee caving in too many times, now…Continue

Started by Matthew. Last reply by Greg Crowder Apr 12.

Some questions for the experts

Started by Niel Smit Mar 4.

Going it alone 2 Replies

I received a message via this site last week from Jurie Pohl saying that he was doing the GT alone. He is not aiming to break the record & has a target of 90 hours. I've not heard from him since…Continue

Started by Nic Shaw. Last reply by Stijn Laenen May 23, 2011.

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Latest Activity

Gary Mortimer commented on Niel Smit's blog post 1st attempt

"Best of luck Niel and team"

Apr 12

Greg Crowder replied to Matthew's discussion First Ascent Fusion 900

"Mat, give me a shout if you havent sold it yet to the other guys."

Apr 12

Herman Carstens, NL, Chris WIllis and 1 more joined The Maloti Drakensberg Transfrontier Challenge Blog

Apr 3

Niel Smit posted a blog post

1st attempt

Hi everyonePlanning our 1st traverse attempt in April. Added a forum post earlier this month, which gives our high level plan and asks some questions. Time is quickly running out, but I’m still hopeful for some replies! :)CheersSee More

Mar 14

1 Comment

Nic Shaw posted a blog post

A Mountain Bike Traverse

Hi allIt's been a long while since I have used this site; probably because I have hung up my trail shoes for a while. Recently, Nick & James Arding & I did a really great mountain bike ride from Sani Top over Thabana Ntlenyana and down the Sakeng valley to Molumong. The total route is shy of 70km & offers some epic and spectacular mountain biking. Getting up the hills is pretty tough & involves carrying the bike on one's back, but once on the ridges - and certainly coming down -…See More

Mar 13

0 Comments

Niel Smit posted a discussion

Some questions for the experts

We are a group of 8 first time traversers planning to do the DGT in early April from Sentinel to Bushman’s. Won’t be attempting anything crazy like 3 days though – we’re doing it nice and “easy”, walking 14 days, relaxing for 2 days in between; so 16 days in total. (although this is still quite a challenge for us :) We’ve spent a lot of time researching, reading on this website and other sources and finally come to a point where we are as confident as we can get on our own so have some final…See More

Mar 4

0 Comments

Peter Rodda commented on Gary Mortimer's blog post Membership keeps climbing

"Hi, We are not planning a record attempt... quite the opposite actually. We are planning a traverse in April this year and are planning on doing it over 14-16 days. There are 8 of us, and I think a few of them are responsible for the…"

Jan 10

Gary Mortimer posted a blog post

Membership keeps climbing

Slowly and steadily the numbers are creeping up but I am not seeing much interaction or planning.Is this a just a community of lurkers or are some of you going for it soon???See More

Dec 7, 2011

1 Comment

Record Progression

Current Record:

60h 29m 30s (Ryno Griesel & Cobus van Zyl - Apr 2010)

Ladies Record:

110h 57m (Christine Harris with Carlos Gonzales - Jan 2010)

Previous Records:

61h 24m 11s (Andrew Porter - Dec 2009)

81h 52m 52s (Andrew Hagen & Stijn Laenen - Dec 2008)

105h 39m (Gavin & Lawrie Raubenheimer - Feb 1999)

157h 11m (Laura Forster & Fiona McIntosh, Ladies Record - Nov 2008)

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Blog Posts

1st attempt

Hi everyone

Planning our 1^st traverse attempt in April. Added a forum post earlier this month, which gives our high level plan and asks some questions. Time is quickly running out, but I’m still hopeful for some replies! :)

Cheers

Posted by Niel Smit on March 14, 2012 at 14:38 — 1 Comment

A Mountain Bike Traverse

Hi all

It's been a long while since I have used this site; probably because I have hung up my trail shoes for a while. Recently, Nick & James Arding & I did a really great mountain bike ride from Sani Top over Thabana Ntlenyana and down the Sakeng valley to Molumong. The total route is shy of 70km & offers some epic and spectacular mountain biking. Getting up the hills is pretty tough & involves carrying the bike on one's back, but once on the ridges - and…

Continue

Posted by Nic Shaw on March 13, 2012 at 10:07

Membership keeps climbing

Slowly and steadily the numbers are creeping up but I am not seeing much interaction or planning.

Is this a just a community of lurkers or are some of you going for it soon???

Posted by Gary Mortimer on December 7, 2011 at 15:55 — 1 Comment

Interesting site

Found lots of interesting stuff here http://crossroadsadventure.co.za/ez/index.php?/eng/Traverse-planning

Stacks of useful numbers and a well thought out doc.

If anyone from that group happens to be a member here could we use it all??

Posted by Gary Mortimer on November 22, 2011 at 10:33

Nathan has reached Cleft Peak in 12 hours!

Just got an update from him now:

"Cleft Peak, 12 hours. Overslept and left at 02:30 - Mont-aux-Sources in 1h38. On top of Cleft with signal at last. Feet ok. I've taken strain last 3hrs on uphills, flats I'm fine. No rain."

So that's 50-odd km covered in the first 12 hours which is a pretty fast pace. Incredibly, he's having luck with this weather! Keep on trucking Nathan :-)

Posted by Stijn Laenen on January 21, 2011 at 14:05 — 4 Comments

Nathan Thompson's Record Attempt: Live Updates

Hey guys

Nathan Thompson is starting his record attempt at 2am tomorrow morning (Fri 21 Jan). I will be blogging live updates on this site as soon as I receive them.

Nathan is a strong triathlete with several adventure races and other long-distance events to his name. This is his 2nd attempt at the DGT record, the first one ending in the Cathedral Peak area after making it to Easter Cave on the first day in rainy conditions. Methinks he has a much better idea…

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Posted by Stijn Laenen on January 20, 2011 at 16:49 — 13 Comments

Proof of Attempt

Hi guys,

So I'm planning another attempt by the end of January.
Question is how do I prove my attempt and finishing time? Without question or people doubting it or that I summited all 6 peaks?
Only thing I can think is a GPS track, a Photo on each peak (prob terrible quality since I'll be carrying light with camera phone), and signed register at Sentinel car park?

Thanks

Posted by Nathan Thompson on January 5, 2011 at 8:46 — 2 Comments

GRAND TRAVERSE 5TH DECEMBER TO 11TH DECEMBER

ACROSS THE DRAGON’S BACK IN SIX DAYS:

On Sunday 2010/12/05 at 04:00 Louwtjie Van Straaten and myself Gavin Bazley left the Sentinal car park and started a 228km journey on foot. We were attempting the Grand Traverse Challenge.

The Grand Traverse challenge started for me during late 2008 when I first heard of this challenge. It was during this time that I started reading trail reports written by people who had completed this…

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Posted by Gavin Bazley on December 15, 2010 at 7:00 — 2 Comments

6 Highest Peaks???

Gary/Nick - please could the blurb about "running the 6 highest peaks South of Kilimanjaro" be modified/removed? It is simply not true - e.g. Mont-aux-Sources would struggle to make it into the top 20 highest peaks in the Drakensberg, let alone peaks South of Kili... Maybe 6 of the most famous berg peaks but certainly not the highest, by any definition of the word. And while I'm on it, you would struggle to fit "3 high-altitude comrades" into the 207km of the DGT too ;-) Another suggestion -…

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Posted by Stijn Laenen on November 3, 2010 at 18:00 — 2 Comments