: They puffed for days, "whipping up" a massive white cloud that eventually covered the entire mountain.
Whipping Day, also known as "Flogging Day," was a regular occurrence on Table Mountain, specifically at the Cape of Good Hope, during the 18th and 19th centuries. On this day, enslaved people and servants who had been found guilty of various offenses, such as disobedience, theft, or running away, were subjected to public floggings. The practice was a form of punishment and control, used to maintain the authority of their enslavers and masters. whipping day at table mountain
There have been tragedies. In 2005, a climber known only by his trail name "Spider" fell 40 meters on the Arrow Final route during Whipping Day. He survived but lost his spleen. In 2014, a trail runner went off-route during the Skeleton Gorge descent and spent 14 hours lost in the indigenous forest before being found hypothermic. : They puffed for days, "whipping up" a
No one signs a waiver. No one gets paid. The reward is simply finishing the day without needing the medics. The practice was a form of punishment and
Public whipping at Table Mountain began to decline after the British First Occupation (1795) and the formal abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Humanitarian reforms in the 1820s, led by figures like Dr. John Philip of the London Missionary Society, condemned such open brutality. The last recorded public flogging at the mountain’s base occurred in the , replaced by private prison punishments and, later, banishment to penal colonies.