“It is wonderful to host a first-time event where every seat in the house is booked,” says FEAT director Lisa de Speville, an adventure racer. “Even more rewarding is this demonstration of support for South African adventurers.”

De Speville has long been fascinated by expeditions. She devours and collects books in the expedition-adventure genre, she knows many local adventurers and she delights in looking at photos of amazing places and hearing tales first-hand. “It can be risky to create an event around personal passions and interests and to assume that hundreds of people will be as enthusiastic about this topic as I am,” she explains. “The good news is that they are!”

The audience is encouraged to show their delight during talks with ‘Oohs’, ‘Ahs’ and spontaneous claps in response to images accompanying the presentations as well as speakers’ words.

FEAT is a platform that supports and publicises what South African adventurers are up to, locally and internationally. Its structured, time-limited format allows each speaker only seven minutes to present on a specific aspect of a recent expedition. This makes for an exciting night. “It’s like a mezze platter versus a big bowl of pasta. At FEAT the audience gets to taste many bite-sized treats,” De Speville says, laughing at this culinary comparison.

The dozen speakers at the inaugural FEAT evening are Alex Harris, Andrew Kellet, Cobus van Zyl, Darron Raw, Julian Dallamore, Kyle Meenehan, Mandy Ramsden, Marianne Schwankhart, Mike Blyth, Peter van Kets, Pierre Carter and Ray Chaplin. Their presentation topics cover mountaineering, kayaking (river and sea), big wall rock climbing, paragliding, an expedition career, adventure films, ocean rowing, sponsorships, adventure racing, ultra-distance mountain running and long-distance walking.

FEAT celebrates the achievements of South African adventurers, bringing their outdoor experiences indoors. FEAT is the ultimate armchair adventure experience.

FEAT will be held in Jo’burg on Thursday, 7 October 2010, at the Wits Theatre in Braamfontein. Tickets are sold out. The talks will be placed online by the end of October 2010.

FEAT is made possible by its sponsors – Biophys, Buff, CAPESTORM and Hi-Tec – and media partners, www.AR.co.za and Go Multi Magazine. For more information, visit the FEAT website at www.featsa.co.za and FEAT page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/featsa

It’s only four weeks until FEAT 2010 debuts in Johannesburg. FEAT (Fascinating Expedition & Adventure Talks) is a high-octane event where talk topics, presented by celebrated outdoor adventurers, include tales of expeditions, practical advice on sponsorships, technology and making a career as an adventurer.

“Although the era of classic expeditions, when ‘adventurer’ was a conventional career title and expeditions to open trade routes and discover new lands were funded by King and country, is long gone, the need for adventure still exists,” says FEAT director, Lisa de Speville. Yet few South African adventurers have the providence to write ‘adventurer’ in the occupation block on forms; most work ‘two jobs’, juggling full-time employment and families with expedition planning and preparation.

Traditional components of an expedition are sponsorships, food, water, equipment, clothing and physical preparation. “But,” de Speville says, “adventurers don’t just go for months into the great unknown; they have to post daily blogs, upload photos, speak to radio stations via satellite phone and put video clips on YouTube. When they get home they deliver presentations to sponsors, companies, clubs and schools. A lot of this is about sponsor return.” She explains that expeditions may include a videographer to capture the journey for a documentary; book deals, which require months of writing post-expedition, may also be on the table. Causes and charities partnered to an expedition add to the adventurer’s responsibilities and obligations. An expedition doesn’t end when the physical objective is achieved.

The theme of making a career as an adventurer will be presented at FEAT by Alex Harris, an experienced mountaineer and polar adventurer. Julian Dallamore, a corporate Brand Manager, touches on the sponsorship of expeditions, while adventurer Ray Chaplin discusses media communication technology for expeditions.

The dozen speakers at the inaugural FEAT evening are Alex Harris, Andrew Kellet, Cobus van Zyl, Darron Raw, Julian Dallamore, Kyle Meenehan, Mandy Ramsden, Marianne Schwankhart, Mike Blyth, Peter van Kets, Pierre Carter and Ray Chaplin. Their presentation topics cover mountaineering, kayaking (river and sea), big wall rock climbing, paragliding, an expedition career, adventure films, ocean rowing, sponsorships, adventure racing, ultra-distance mountain running and long-distance walking.

FEAT celebrates the achievements of South African adventurers, bringing their outdoor experiences indoors. FEAT is the ultimate armchair adventure experience.

FEAT will be held in Jo’burg on Thursday, 7 October 2010, at the Wits Theatre in Braamfontein. Tickets are only available pre-event through Computicket.

FEAT is made possible by its sponsors – Biophys, Buff, CAPESTORM and Hi-Tec – and media partners, www.AR.co.za and Go Multi Magazine. For more information, visit the FEAT website at www.featsa.co.za and FEAT page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/featsa

South African adventurers are accomplished; many of their achievements are documented as World firsts and records. Our adventurers have traversed and circumnavigated countries and continents; they’ve rowed across oceans; scaled mountains; cycled extraordinary distances and descended rivers. In October, for the first time, 12 South African adventurers come together to tell of their recent expedition experiences at FEAT, a dynamic and captivating evening of time-limited presentations.

FEAT, Fascinating Expedition & Adventure Talks, is an evening of time-limited presentations where each adventurer speaks for seven minutes – no more, no less – focusing on an aspect of a recent expedition. Striking photographs illustrate their words, which tell of emotions, challenges and discoveries – of people, places and themselves.

feat – noun, a noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement, usually displaying boldness or skill

Created by adventure racer and writer Lisa de Speville, FEAT brings South Africa’s adventurers together. “Most people would love to embark on an expedition; but they feel tied to ‘real life’,” she says. “It takes a different, special kind of courage and drive to abandon socially accepted norms of home and work to set off – often solo – on self-motivated and self-organised expeditions. Whether the adventure involves oceans, countries, continents, rivers or mountains, these achievements are extraordinary. I’ve yet to meet a person who is not captivated by tales of these adventures.”

Speakers at the inaugural FEAT are: Alex Harris, Andrew Kellet, Cobus van Zyl, Darron Raw, Kyle Meenehan, Mandy Ramsden, Marianne Schwankhart, Mike Blyth, Peter van Kets, Pierre Carter, Ray Chaplin and Riaan Manser. Their presentation topics cover the disciplines of mountaineering, kayaking (river and sea), big wall rock climbing, paragliding, adventure films, ocean rowing, adventure racing, ultra distance mountain running and long distance walking.

FEAT aims to publicise the achievements of South African adventurers, bringing their outdoor experiences indoors. FEAT is the ultimate armchair adventure experience.

The inaugural FEAT event will be held in Jo’burg on Thursday, 7 October 2010, at the Wits Theatre in Braamfontein. Tickets are only available through Computicket. Ticketing opens on Monday, 2 August 2010.

FEAT is made possible by its sponsors – Biophys, Buff, CAPESTORM and Hi-Tec – and media partners, www.AR.co.za and Go Multi Magazine.

For more information, visit the FEAT website at www.featsa.co.za

“We will try Denali another time and are pursuing it diplomatically,” he adds.

They’re off to Mt Elbrus in Russia on 11 July 2010.

This challenge has been attempted by other adventurers but, as yet, has not been achieved. Marianne, a photographer, will document this challenge, flying in tandem with team leader, Pierre Carter.

The website is www.7summits7flights.co.za and their progress can be followed on their blog or through Facebook and Twitter.

This weather window is a good one with clear skies and low winds. There are literally over a hundred people summiting. This includes Jordan Romero, 13-year old son of adventure racers Paul Romero and Karen Ludgren. They were with Jordan when he summited. He’s the youngest person to summit this mountain. That makes it his 7th summit (he’s going for all 8). Only Mt Vinson in Antarctica left.

Apa Sherpa bettered the existing ‘most Everest summits’ record, which he holds, by adding another to make this his 20th.

More on this Everest season on ExplorersWeb.

I have a particular interest in the changing nature of the Khumbu Icefall (and the ropes and ladders rigged by the Khumbu Ice Doctors) and in today’s dispatch Mike, from Adventure Consultants, says, “The lower icefall had changed a lot in the past two weeks and predictably, there were more melt pools and lots of zig zagging around newly formed glacial pressure ridges. Even Mandy avoided wet feet. Also predictable was the melting out of fixed rope anchors. Just to make things interesting a couple of ladders were semi suspended in space. In a volatile section of the upper icefall a large crash/whoomph caused hearts to skip a few beats. Fortunately, the ice behaved and stayed in place.”

Ascending the stifling hot Upper Western Cym to C2 they passed groups returning from their successful summits. He notes that “The approximately 100 successful summit climbers from yesterday were mostly descending from C4 to C2 today”. That’s a lot of summiters! 

Mike also mentions that there is a “mass movement” of climbers and sherpas – about 150 of them! –  from base camp to C2 in preparation for a summit bid in the next few days, which is when the next window of favourable weather is expected to open.

Last Wednesday, Rob – in Volksrust at that stage - just happened to spot Mnweni Marathon in the race calendar section of the May issue of Runner’s World SA. He made contact with Laura, cycled to the Mnweni valley, ran a super six-hour time (9th place!) and yesterday, the morning after the run, was back in the saddle continuing on his route to ’Maritzburg.

Rob’s website, Tri4Africa, hosts his blog, images and other bits. His ‘tri’ is in support of Re-Cycle, an organisation whose mission “is to collect secondhand bicycles and ship them to Africa. Their partners distribute bikes and teach riders the skills to repair and maintain them. The bikes also help health/AIDS workers reach remote villages and even provide an ambulance service in remote Namibia“. Rob aims to raise £1 per kilometre of his journey in support of Re-Cycle.

Rob is no stranger to South Africa. His dad is South African and Rob has spent time here visiting family.

It’s always a treat to meet adventurous spirits; Rob is definitely an interesting one. Safe travels on your last day or two of cycling and happy running at Comrades, Rob.

The first, brief, summit window opened last week, which allowed for rope fixing and a handful of summits. A more sustainable window is expected to open around 20 May. From what I can tell there are five South Africans on the mountain: Ronnie Muhl, Mandy Ramsden and three others.

Mandy, climbing with the Kiwi outfit Adventure Consultants (they’re posting daily dispatches on their site – nice reading), is most notable as a successful Everest summit will make her the first South African woman to tick off all Seven Summits. Mandy is sending updates through to CapeStorm’s Facebook page. Ronnie’s team is Adventures Global and he has four South Africans with him (the rest seem to be Aussies)

Interestingly, 13 climbers on the mountain (Ronnie’s team – SA, Aussie – and Mandy, in a different team) are wearing a local South African brand; CapeStorm kitted the baker’s dozen in their A.S.R. high altitude down suits. Some climbers are out with illness. Nine (as of 6 May) continue.

To follow summit reports, which will pick up from about 20 May, visit these sites:

• CapeStorm’s Facebook page
• Ronnie’s Adventures Global Facebook page

An image created by Capestorm and posted on their Facebook site, outlining the progress of the 13 climbers.