Four mountaineers have broken the South African record by climbing the highest mountain peaks, in each of the nine provinces, in 4 days, 15 hours and 59 minutes.
Their aim was to raise money to help 350 pupils learn the digital skill of coding.
The project #CodeClimber was established by the expedition leader, Tian Liebenberg, to raise about R100 000 on the crowdfunding platform Backabuddy to help the Change the World Trust.
The rest of the team was Everest-conquering Alex Harris and Sean Disney, and Adrian Saffy.
Change the World co-founder Jonathan Novotny said it was immensely proud.
“We are raising R100 000 to bring coding to secondary schools and impact 350 pupils with a fun, basic coding course, while encouraging the start of new coding clubs in these schools. We are impressed at the tenacity and persistence shown by the team. Despite injuries and a cold front, they kept fighting,” he said.
Liebenberg said the climbing experience did not come without its challenges, but the team was determined not to give up.
“We were set to break a record and we identified three things that could hamper our goal. One was unexpected weather, the second was injury, and the third was unforseen traffic.
"And all three of those things happened. I hurt my knee coming down the Mafadi mountain in KZN, so we had to descend slowly and we still had three mountains to climb.
“On the KwaDuma, between South Africa and Lesotho, the wind flattened us and there were pallets of ice coming at us. Then we were delayed in traffic driving from the Eastern Cape to the Northern Cape.
"But giving up was not an option, there was too much
at stake. I knew if we just pushed hard we still had a shot,” he said.
Liebenberg said they raised R22 000 for the initiative and needed the public’s support to help them reach their goal of R100 000.
“We climbed, now we need the public to do its part and donate to this cause and help us reach our goal,” he said.
Liebenberg said because he worked in the media, he found the initiative a great way to get young people involved in the industry early on.
The public can donate to the #CodeClimber initiative by visiting crowdfunding website www.backabuddy.co.za