On Monday, 10 May 2021 South African trail running rivals turned teammates and K-Way athletes, Christiaan Greyling and AJ Calitz attempted and successfully broke the Guinness World Records vertical distance on foot in 19 hours 52 minutes on Table Mountain’s Platteklip Gorge.
The record that they were aiming to beat, held previously by 11 members of The Reek Challenge at Croagh Patrick in Murrisk, Ireland, stands at 18 086m, or 13 ascents. Calitz is no stranger to Guinness World Records, previously holding the record for The Most Vertical Height Gained in 12 hours (10,257m), set on the same mountain in 2014. This time Calitz broke a new record with Greyling.
“When AJ asked me to attempt breaking a world record with him, I said yes without hesitation. Since we were limited with the Covid-19 curfew we only had 20 hours to complete our goal of 14 ascents of Platteklip Gorge and successfully managed to complete the 14 ascents (19,376m) in 19 hours and 52 minutes,” said Greyling of the team’s endeavour. “We planned it well, but we are amazed by the support we received from friends and the community. Without this, it would not have been possible to do something this extraordinary! We are broken, but the effort was worth it.”
“We started our attempt at 04:00 on Monday and completed it at 23:52. I’ve been up Platteklip Gorge plenty of times, but nothing can really prepare you for hours of brutal mountain assault. We had our work cut out for us, but we planned everything meticulously and were well prepared,” said Calitz.
Greyling and Calitz’s aim was to raise awareness for Edunova, a Non-Profit Company focused on the effective use of technology in disadvantaged schools throughout South Africa.