The Drakensberg Grand Traverse Record Attempt is Underway
Rob Howard / 24.03.2014
In an Interview with Anne-Marie Dunhill for SleepMonsters last year elite ultra runner Ryan Sandes mentioned his plans for the Drakensberg Traverse for the first time. It sounded like an exciting challenge, especially with the slick and well-funded reporting of Red Bull behind the challenge and top South African Adventure Racer Ryno Griesel as Sandes running partner.
Or maybe it is the other way around as Griesel, who races with Team Cyanosis, is the current record holder for the challenge. (Not that you’d know it with all the PR and web presentation built around the better known ultra runner.)
After watching the weather patterns the pair have now set off and are currently moving across the mighty Drakensberg mountain range, already well ahead of schedule.
The slick live website allows you to track their progress and does a great job of putting the challenge into context; “Imagine running five marathons back to back, non-stop, while climbing the equivalent height of Mount Everest. Even that doesn't quite do it justice.”
The current record for the almost pathless 220km route is 60h 29m 30s and was set in April 2010, by Griesel and Cobus van Zyl using Adventure Racing tactics and skills to beat the previous time for fast hikes. Now Griesel and Sandes plan to up the ante again and attempt to run the distance, but it is a level of endurance and sleep deprivation unknown to Sandes.
Griesel is not a professional runner, but so passionate is he about the mountains that in late 2013 he hung up his business suit and became a ‘fulltime shoe salesman’ as he calls it, for mountain apparel brand, Salomon.
Ryno has climbed various mountains in Africa, Europe and Nepal and currently holds the record for the Hobbit 100km mountain run (back to back wins in 2012/13). He is in charge of navigation, logistical planning and keeping the attempt within the rules and mountain ethics of the challenge – something both he and Sandes feel very strongly about.
Before leaving he said; "After almost two years of prep, I can't believe we're only a few hours away from the attempt.”
Sandes is one of the most successful ultra trail racers in the world, having won endurance mountain events on every continent. In 2008 Ryan won both the Gobi Desert and Sahara stage races, followed by a first place in the Atacama Desert marathon in Chile in 2009 and the Last Desert event in Antarctica at the end of 2010.
In 2011 he turned his focus away from stage racing to take on some of the major one-day events and his results have been spectacular, winning, among others, the iconic Leadville 100-miler in the States and setting a new record at the Salomon Skyrun in 2012.
The Drakensberg Grand Traverse will be his biggest challenge, and the question is whether his exceptional running ability combined with Griesel’s adventure racing know-how and experience will allow them to take the record to a new level. It is going to be fascinating to follow their progress.
