WATCH: Schumann first person to traverse Cape Fold Mountain range

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Cape Town film-maker and ultra-athlete Damien Schumann today became the first person to traverse the entire Cape Fold Mountain range – completing 1 150km in 30 days. He arrived in the Groendal Nature Reserve at 5pm after 30 days and 10 hours on his feet. As an avid mountaineer and alpine runner, Damien has spent a lot of time in the Cederberg, Langeberg, Kouebokkeveld and Hex River regions. Realising they all link up to form the pristine Cape Fold belt, running it from start to finish became his ultimate goal. In 2012, Jay Simson, a National Geographic Young Explorer, became the first person to hike the around 650km from Pakhuis Pass to Robinson Pass following the Cape Fold Belt. Simpson has been an incredible inspiration for the Cape Unfolds adventure, pioneering an unbroken traverse of the region, Schumann said. Schumann has, however, taken it to another level by becoming the first person to complete the traverse to the end of the range, consisting of over 1 150km of rough, technical and rugged terrain, often with no trail to follow.

As a film-maker, Schumann has been documenting the entire trip with his DSLR camera and GoPro. Where access allowed, action photographers Simon Pocock and Jared Paisley joined him en route. The documentary to follow is already highly anticipated in the trail running community.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ultra-athlete Damien Schumann at 5pm today became the first person to traverse the entire Cape Fold Mountain range – completing 1 150km in 30 days and 10 hours. Video: Supplied

But can you call it running?

"Running is the obvious and most efficient way to traverse mountainous terrain. However, many sections have been unrunnable. Often with no trails, for the majority of the sections it has been impossible for support to reach Schumann during the day," Schumann said before embarking on his milestone.

"So 'running' or 'trail running' is not an accurate term. 'Alpine running' is the term closest to describing what Schumann has done in the last 30 days.

“It adopts the mountaineering style of being fast, light and self-sufficient. This is more risky than hiking, but with the understanding that moving quickly may bring one to safety quicker.

“The Cape Fold Mountains are a wall of rock that have separated the southern coast of Africa from its mainland for as long as humans have been roaming this land. Although people have summited and crossed these mountains, no one has ever pieced all of the ranges together.

“The diversity in landscape among the various ranges is astounding, but no one has observed this metamorphosis from one end to the next in a single traverse.

“I want to be the first person to do so. And in so doing string together the incredible diversity of multiple World Heritage Sites and vegetation only found in this region into a single unit.”