Imagine standing on the Tanzanian border on the eastern coast of Africa where one of nature’s most stunning examples of its eternal power and might is facing you. Kilimanjaro, one of the seven tallest mountains in the world, is ranked together with Mount Everest in the Himalayan mountain range and Mount Denali located in the American Cordillera Range of Alaska. Its peak is located at a staggering 19,341 feet, an impressive height for any serious hiker to summit.
This enormous challenge drew Rodney Schussler, an English teacher at Oliver Ames High School in Easton, Massachusetts, to climb and summit Kilimanjaro in an effort to combat age, nature, and himself. This is the fight between the man and the mountain.
Mr. Schussler and Chris Falsone, his best friend, have been hiking together for 20 years. Both were keen on experiencing challenge in the outdoor settings, but there was a calling for the both of them that seemed to emanate from Kilimanjaro.
“[Falsone] asked my wife about the trip when he was visiting two summers ago,” Mr. Schussler said. “He asked her for me because I was too nervous.”
She agreed with Falsone and Mr. Schussler began to train. During the months of April, May, and June, he started to do rigorous leg workouts. Sometimes he would purposefully run for long distances with the intent to tire out his legs so that getting up in the morning was more work than he wanted to do. However, there was something he could not do fully prepare for until he started to climb the mountain.
“The main thing that was the “x” factor was oxygen. There’s nothing you can do for the altitude. It all depends on what your body is feeling at the time.”
The porters, who are the support staff for the hike, say “pole pole”, which translates to “walk slowly”. This is one of the most essential components to hiking a mountain as rigorous and demanding as Kilimanjaro. The lack of oxygen causes the hiker to breathe harder, and if the body is pushed too hard, it can cause him or her to collapse from exhaustion.
“I knew it was going to be hard,” said Mr. Schussler, “but It was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done.”
The hike is a gradual ascent and descent over the course of nine days and eight nights. After ascending, the group descends along the mountain to spend the night in order to delay or prevent altitude sickness. Although rigorous, the mountain provides some of the most beautiful views of the African landscape in the continent.
“Summit day was brutal,” said Mr. Schussler. “They wake you up at midnight. Then you start to hike at one in the morning. The sleeping on the ground at night plus the lack of food…you’re just exhausted and now you’re supposed to hike four thousand feet in nine hours.”
They formed a party train and walked brutally slow. Each hiker wore six layers of clothing, from a base layer to a down coat. As they traversed the ridge of the mountain, it was the night of the lunar eclipse and stars guided them as they hiked along. By the time the sun rose at 6:30, every member of the party was drained.
“I knew I could do it, but by that point, it was all mental.”
As they approached the summit, it was agonizingly slow to take two steps. It was the first time in 20 years that the entire rim of the crater was still completely covered in snow so late into the year. After nine hours of taking half breaths, walking through deep snow without any clamps, and eating pasta and rice for days on end, they summited Kilimanjaro at 10:55 AM.
“I cried like a baby,” said Mr. Schussler. “I don’t care who you are. Once you get to the top of that you cry.”
To add to the experience, the altitude is so high that the lack of oxygen causes a person to become giddy and loopy. But it was that experience in totality, from the physical challenges to seeing the sign atop Kilimanjaro’s peak, that changed the way Mr. Schussler saw the world around him.
“I think what profoundly changed me was that it was me versus me. What I learned is that you kinda know as you get older that you are your own obstacle. We can do as people and humans far more than what we tell ourselves.”
Mr. Schussler had to displace himself from his life and put himself in a completely new situation when he climbed Kilimanjaro.
“I had never been away from my girls for more than two nights…The hike was really 70 percent mental and 30 percent physical.”
After completing such a challenge, Mr. Schussler referred to David Foster Wallace’s article titled “This is Water” when he thought about the “default setting” and the way he could change it. His default setting is what all of us face in life; a nine-to-five job, marriage, children, and taxes. It is the mark of a first world civilization that can sometimes numb our senses to the world around us. It tells us that what we’re doing is bad and that we should end it even when that would mean a loss of personal achievement.
“Our default setting is going to come in 100 times and say quit. Stop. Don’t do anymore, you’re good…I’ve learned to push through that.”
Wallace says, “If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth.”
It is this same fundamental belief in changing the default setting that brought Mr. Schussler up Kilimanjaro in order to fight himself, his natural boundaries, and age, which once were seen as barriers, to a new perspective on life and his goals. Instead, he won in the fight between the man and the mountain.