Local reality series hits “peak”

Mon, 08 Feb 2010

South Africa’s new local reality show, The BAR-ONE Manhunt, recently had contestants climbing Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro. At 5 890m, it is the highest free-standing mountain in the world,

Broadcast on SABC3, The BAR-ONE Manhunt sees 14 South African men between the ages of 23 and 38 test their strength, stamina and determination by facing tough physical challenges to compete for the grand prize of over R1m. The series is an extension of the “It’s easy to spot a BAR-ONE man” campaign and the winner will be crowned the next BAR-ONE Man.

The contestants had to take on the Umbwe Trail, the most difficult of all the routes up to the summit.

“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life,” said contestant Kabelo Thathe.

Getting to the summit of Kilimanjaro, an inactive stratovolcano in north-eastern Tanzania with three distinct craters, is no small feat, even for experienced a mountaineers..

Veteran Kilimanjaro guide Sean Disney describes scaling the peak as physically strenuous and mentally challenging and demanding. “It’s quite a unique mountain in that it goes through five zones as you climb, with temperatures going from 30˚C-plus to -15˚C.”
Climbers begin in cultivated land and then proceed through forest, savannah, Afro-Alpine desert, moonscape and, finally, the ice-cap zone.

“It’s a good challenge getting up there; you have to be fit,” continues Disney. “Most people spend at least five to seven days on the mountain, five days to get up and two to get down again. Going up is much slower because you have to acclimatise as you go. Over that period you’re walking about 70km, up and down. Most people walk between 10 and 15km a day on average.”

In that time, climbers are faced with a wide range of physical and mental obstacles. These include altitude sickness – which affects nearly everyone climbing Kilimanjaro, fighting the intense cold, being in an environment to which one is not accustomed, and lack of sleep, as well as the time it takes to get down the mountain again.

Another challenge is rising around midnight and climbing in the dark, especially for the final assault on the summit. “Most people will tell you it’s to see the sunrise from the summit, but it’s also so that you have daylight hours for a rescue, in case of an accident,” says Disney.

Contestant Quinten Coetzer comments:. “Summiting was a life-changing experience. It was pretty difficult. Physically it wasn’t hard, but mentally it was.”
Fellow contestant Stephen Segal adds: “It’s the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. “It was breathtaking, it was beautiful, it was all the most amazing words put together.”

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