John Michael Tawse (Espin 1978) founded two of South Africa’s more extreme sporting events.
The first official Skyrun took place in 1997 with 15 participants but had to be cancelled at Snowdon Peak due to extreme weather conditions, gale force winds, snow and sleet. The following year saw 27 finishers and 44 finishers in 1999. The Wartrail Tri Challenge was ‘birthed’ out of Skyrun in 2000 and consists of a 56km run, 118km mountain bike and 65km canoe paddle.
Both these events are very much Old Andrean initiatives with quite a number of OAs as well as Tiffindel Ski being part of the initial founding and organising of both events.