Mount Nyangani in the Eastern Highlands proudly stands as the highest mountain in Zimbabwe, reaching up to the height of 2,592 metres (8,504 feet) above sea level. In comparison, the highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis in the north of Scotland which reaches up to a measly, paltry 1,345 metres (4,413 feet) above sea level. Nyangani rather than Ben Nevis, therefore, appears to be the greatest challenge to any walker, being almost twice as high. Zimbabwe is greater than the UK!
However, before we get too blasé about how hard it is to climb the mountain, we might first consider one other detail. The start of the climb up Mount Nyangani normally starts at an altitude of between 1,800 and 2,000 metres (upwards of 5,900 feet) above sea level, while most people start the climb up Ben Nevis at 20 metres (65 feet) above sea level. That means that the actual climb up Mount Nyangani is in the region of 750 metres (2,500 feet) while the actual climb up Ben Nevis is in the region of 1,325 metres (over 4,400 feet). The climb up the highest mountain in Zimbabwe is not as much as the climb up the highest mountain in the UK.
Of course, we should not be too despondent about ‘losing’ out to the rival mountain in the UK, in terms of distance covered — every mountain is a challenge. Furthermore, we should take into account, the differing weather and ground conditions that affect the climb (different numbers of people climbing the respective mountains make more or less of a track). And then, let us not forget, there is pressure, the higher we go. The air is thinner the higher we go, making walking harder.
Thinking of pressure, consider Kathryn Sullivan, one of the six women in the first group to include women in NASA Astronaut training, who subsequently became the first woman to be certified to wear a United States Air Force pressure suit, and later to set an unofficial sustained American aviation altitude record for women of 19,000 metres (63,000 ft — just a little bit higher than even Mount Nyangani!) as a crew member on three Challenger Space Shuttle missions in space. In that regard, she has reached the heights, the top of the ‘mountain’, even. She faced pressure.
Vince Lombardi, the celebrated American sports coach, once pointed out that “The man on top of the mountain did not fall there”. We might add that he did not fly there either; he climbed. It will have required huge effort, sacrifice, determination and conviction. The ‘mountains’ that Sullivan climbed, the heights she reached, however, may have involved a little flying but the metaphor is clear. Despite the physical, mental and emotional pressure, she endured and sought only to climb higher. Interestingly, she also became the first woman to dive into the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth’s oceans (where the pressure deep down is equally strong), thus becoming the first person to travel both to Challenger Deep and into space.
We have considered before how our role as educators, teachers and parents, is to raise our children up higher, to help them see the mountains before them as challenges and opportunities. Some challenges appear greater than others but reality often is different (like the climb up Mount Nyangani and Ben Nevis). We need to be very conscious therefore that such challenges will bring pressure in many different forms (physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual) and so we need to enable them to handle such pressure. River deep, mountain high, it does not matter – pressure is strong.
Often the climb down is equally pressurised after the highs and we need to prepare them for that too. Similarly, the ‘lows’, the dark times, the hard times, the deep times, can bring different pressure on our children which we need to help them overcome. Sullivan is quoted as saying “It’s easy to be daunted by the enormity of the challenge: climbing that mountain, writing that novel, or asking somebody out for a date can just seem huge.” But that must not keep us from challenging them to climb that difficult ‘mountain’. Pressure is good and necessary for growth. As Sullivan noted, “I’m an explorer, and that doesn’t always have to involve going to some remote or exotic place. It simply requires a commitment to put curiosity into action.” Similarly, we seek to inculcate such curiosity in our children and help them handle the pressure in whatever form it comes. After all, the view from the heights is worth it. Higher, deeper — pressure, whether Nyangani or Nevis. There is the challenge.