9 Peaks Record up-and-running after Tuesday start at Iron Crown

Long-time friends Adrian Saffy, Alex Harris, Sean Disney and Tian Liebenberg aim to summit each of the highest peaks in each province in record time to raise money for Change the World South Africa whose aim is to teach children how to do programming, reports the Letaba Herald.

Alex and Tian formulated the idea in January last year while in South America to summit Aconcagua, South America’s highest peak.

“I said to Alex it would be quite cool to do something like the 7 Summits with local favour,” Tian said during an exclusive interview with the group on Tuesday evening. “So we decided to do something similar in South Africa and climb the highest peak in each province.”

Upon further research on the matter, Tian discovered that it had already been done, and that there had been a record set for the achievement. It was then that they decided to assemble a team who would be willing to attempt to break the record, and first on their list were veteran South African climber, Sean and veteran endurance runner Adrian.

We can’t just do maverick stuff anymore

With Tian being in the media industry working for Media24, they chose to support a programming initiative because of the challenges that the media industry faces right now.

“One of the big things in media is that people are moving away from newspapers and magazines, and everything’s going digital. So the increase of ability of people who can add value to the digital media world is something that’s important to us,” Tian said.

Their main source of income for the charity is a page on crowd-funding website, BackaBuddy where you can donate money in support of the cause to help them reach their target of R100 000.

With regards to the challenge ahead, Adrian was well aware of the risks that lie in wait.

Mafadi is by far the most difficult

“There’s going to be three issues with this attempt, being; recovering from the big climbs, keeping our feet in good working condition and sleep deprivation because we’ll be operating at altitude on minimal sleep,” Adrian noted.

He also stated that they aren’t exactly in a rush to do something stupid. “You must know your limitations, we can’t just do maverick stuff anymore,” he warned.

Sean also expressed which peaks he feels are the most difficult and easiest.

“Mafadi, in the Drakensberg is by far the most difficult while Toringkop in Gauteng should be our easiest climb.”

All eyes in the adventure world will be peeled to see if they are able to pull off this incredible feat. If you are interested in following their journey, you can do so at sportraxs.com.

For more information on the campaign, and competitions they are running, feel free to visit their Facebook page, 9 Peaks Record.

Here’s the list of peaks they will be climbing:

Iron Crown (Limpopo) – 2126m

De Berg (Mpumalanga) – 2331m

Nooitgedacht-west (North West) – 1806m

Toringkop (Gauteng) – 1913m

Namahadi (Free State) – 3275m

Mafadi (Kwazulu-Natal) – 3451m

Kwaduma (Eastern Cape) – 3019m

Murch Point (Northern Cape) – 2156m

Seweweekspoort Peak (Western Cape) – 2325m

– Caxton News Service