Meet South African Thomas van Tonder – a guy who is planning to climb 90-metres up a rope as an official Guinness World Record!
Johannesburg, South Africa (10 November 2020) – In just under 10 days, Red Bull athlete, Thomas van Tonder will be making his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest rope climb (90m) at the Orlando Towers in Soweto, Johannesburg.
The project has been in the planning since the first half of this year. With lockdown restrictions meaning that van Tonder was not able to compete or train for any World Champs, he was in need of a new goal that would keep him motivated and give him something to work towards.
“I figured I could look at some disciplines inside of obstacle racing and try blow it up to a massive scale. Rope climb kept coming up, and as we started looking into venues we came across the Orlando Towers, it ticked all the boxes,” commented van Tonder.
There are various records for rope climbing, but nothing on this kind of structure.
Ross Edgley, a British adventurer and ultra-marathon sea swimmer, was a huge inspiration for van Tonder, as well as fellow OCR athlete, Leon Kofoed, who climbed a 50m rope suspended below a hot air balloon.

Van Tonder rose up the ranks in Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) in South Africa taking the title of Champion in the local Warrior National Series, as well as competing and placing top three at various events in the UK and Denmark in 2019.
‘Rising with the Sun’ will document van Tonder’s attempt at the Guinness World Record along with all his training and preparation. For more insight and to follow his journey, please head over to RedBull.com here.