At sunrise on 21 April nearly 200 intrepid athletes began their first summit of Table Mountain in the 2018 Cableway Charity Challenge.
Written by Dale Jacobs, Business Development team
Five bright eyed Futuregrowth staff and one honorary member from OMIG (ex-Futuregrowth) thought it would be a great idea to take part in this strenuous challenge.
The aim of the event is to try to complete as many summits of Table Mountain as possible in an eleven-hour window – all in support of various worthy charitable causes. Each lap is 5.5 km in distance with participants hiking up the mountain and taking the cable car down to the start/finish line.
Photo stop
This was Futuregrowth’s first time participating in the challenge. Our team was made up of myself (Dale Jacobs), Andrew Canter, Zain Wilson, Dolf van Wijngaarde and Yunus January, with Avhatakali Mugeri adding a lone feminine touch. At Futuregrowth, we’re extremely big on CSI initiatives so it was easy for the six of us to sign up.
As team Futuregrowth, we really can say we came, we saw, we conquered! After sweating relentlessly from sunrise to sunset, with muscles aching in places you never knew existed and very welcome food stops along the way, we made it! Considering this was our first Cableway Challenge we did fantastically well among some stiff competition. We managed to complete 24 summits, placing us 3rd out of 19 corporate teams.
It has to be said that copious chocolate consumption, and the knowledge that there were chilled beers waiting for us at the end, motivated us to keep going! Plus the fact that R1 006 751 was raised for the event's beneficiaries Paedspal, CoolPlay and The Centre for Play and Learning - and 10% of the funds raised will go to Wilderness Search and Rescue, which plays such a pivotal role in caring for our mountain.
A special thanks to the organisers and sponsors of the Cableway Challenge and the staff at Table Mountain – well done on hosting an outstanding event.
Ps. Next year team Futuregrowth plans to take the winning title!
Sunrise from the base
