As I gripped the sides of the 80-foot chain ladder, I listened to their distressingly human yelps ricochet through the canyon and tried not to look down. I took a ragged breath and waited for further counsel, but he was already zipping up the ladder ahead of me with the quick, jerky motions of a professional. Stepping gingerly onto the first rung, and aware a second ladder followed this one, I reminded myself of what awaited me at the top of the climb: the world’s tallest waterfall, Tugela Falls—or possibly the second-tallest waterfall, after Angel Falls in Venezuela. Turns out, it’s challenging to accurately measure a 3,000-foot chute of water tumbling over a mountainside, so the debate remains open and raucous. But to cajole myself into a motivated state, I mentally crowned Tugela “the tallest.”

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