CHALLENGE HISTORY

The Nine Peaks Challenge has been around for as long as South Africa has had nine provinces and has been attempted by many people. The 9 Peaks Challenge was packaged and presented in its current format since the first solo non-stop journey was undertaken by Kobus Bresler during March 2011. He successfully completed the challenge after numerous mistakes, frustrations, scary moments and a great mini-adventure.  The official 9 Peaks Challenge was born.  

Shortly after his solo challenge Kobus was invited to the FEATSA stage and numerous radio and newspaper interviews followed. People were now talking about this cool mini-adventure right here on our doorstep. This led to a formal structure for the  Nine Peaks Challenge. The aim of Kobus’ solo journey was not to set any records, but rather to break ground and become the first person to achieve the solo non-stop 9 Peaks. He felt that people could learn from his trip and improve on his mistakes if they wanted to improve the fastest known time. ​Soon after Kobus completed the solo challenge, a few interested people set out to face the hills, mostly with little success and none of them even completing the journey. It was realised that this challenge should not be underestimated. It was only when Daniel Barnard and George Louw challenged the team record in December of 2012 that a real effort was made to improve on the time. 

Since then, there have been many successful FKT attempts, including the course record of 2 days and 16 hours, set by Greg Avierinos, Ruan Van der Merwe, and Ryno Griesel.

In 2025 after 14 years of administrating the Nine Peaks Challenge, Kobus decided it was time to focus on other ventures and handed the administration over to Evadnee Le Goff.  Having completed the challenge on two separate occasions, Kobus felt they were aligned with their vision for Nine Peaks. The objective was, and still remains, to motivate people to explore South Africa and to challenge themselves. Ultimately the Nine Peaks belongs to all South Africans