Late last month, trail running athletes Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel ran 215km across the top of the Drakensberg mountain range in a staggeringly fast time of 41 hours. In doing so they broke the previous Drakensberg Grand Traverse record by 18 hours. A truly remarkable athletic feat that defies belief really. Enter Kelvin Trautman, a specialist adventure sport photographer whose job it was to relate to the layman at home the enormity of what Ryan and Ryno achieved.
We sat down with Kelvin to discuss the best way to showcase the story and photos from a photographer's perspective, and Kelvin suggested that we feature his 12 favourite photos, along with detailed captions that give insight into what it took to document the record attempt:
Freezing. In October last year, Ryan, Ryno, Cobus (previous holder of the Drak Traverse record) and myself spent 3 days recceing some of the route. On our first night on top of the escarpment we had almost a foot of snow. With limited backpack space due to all the camera gear I was carrying I had very few warm clothing items. Lets just say that Ryan and I did some good tent bonding over those few days.


However, given that there was a very real chance of being stranded on top of the mountain due to fickle weather, there were a few non-negotiable items I packed in both bags.
- A headlamp torch
- A small multi tool/penknife
- A space blanket
- A bivvy bag
- A GPS with extra batteries
- A satellite phone
- Waterproof shell (top and bottom)
- Thermals
- Gloves
- Salomon Mantra running shoes
- A handful of snacks and Llama bars
- Lowepro Rover Pro 45L backpack
- Nikon D4 and Nikon D800 camera bodies
- Nikon 400mm, 70-20mm, 105mm macro, 24-70mm, 50mm, 14-24mm, and 16mm fisheye lenses
- A Manfrotto monopod
- Two spare camera batteries per body
- Four Lexar 32GB 800x CF cards and four Lexar 32GB SD memory cards
- A couple Hoya filters, namely a 77mm ND4, and variable density
- A MicroPro LED LITEPANEL
- Lowepro Rover Pro 35L backpack
- Nikon D610 camera body
- Nikon 70-200mm, 24-70mm, and 14-24mm lenses
- A couple spare camera batteries
- A Nikon SB-900 Speedlight plus a Pocket Wizard mini TT1 and Flex TT5 transmitter and transceiver
- Two Lexar 32GB 800x CF cards and two Lexar 32GB SD memory cards
Waiting for the kettle to boil. His job is to man the mountain hut at the trail-head up to the Amphitheatre (also the starting point of the Drak Traverse route). He has been stationed in this one room hut for 22 years, working week long shifts at a time, and drinking, by his own admission, up to 10 cups of tea a day.







We'd like to thank Kelvin for sharing his photos and stories with us! For more of his work, visit his website, or follow him on Twitter. Kelvin will also be taking over our Instagram account for the next week, as he documents the joBerg2C cycling race.