Mountain Slayers Uganda : View from the Top

In verse 26 He says “…And let them have dominion over all the earth…”

God gives mankind the divine right, with perfect power, over all the productions of the earth, and over the earth itself, to cultivate and manage it, as they should see fit, for their comfort and advantage. The world is ours.

When we explore new lands, we exercise our divine right, we tame them, and submit to the will of God, to His divine vision for us, as His creation.

According to their website description, Mountain Slayers Uganda is a hiking club that was formed in 2015 with the intention of promoting hiking and the outdoor lifestyle among Ugandans across all demographics, with the hope that through their activities, they can inspire a whole generation to move into the wild.

The last part is instructive, because that aspiration lends itself to the divinity I alluded to earlier. Finding new lands, subduing fear to surmount them. Domination. In short, Mountain Slayers, is doing the Lord’s work.

Even so, the driving force behind the club and her activities, is still somewhat obscured from view. Their ethos, their philosophy is a tightly held secret. So I travelled with them to L. Albert in Hoima and Bukasa Island in Lake Victoria, to partially bridge the gap in understanding and majorly to partake of the promising thrills. I wanted to understand, WHY?

2. Figuring out the “Why”

I. “Because It is there”

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it? He said, “Because it is there.”

In a paper published by George Lowenstein titled “The Challenge of Mountaineering for Utility Theory”, the author examines the motivations for mountain climbing and what that means for how social scientists interpret utility as a concept. Quite clearly, hiking (and by extension mountaineering) is an illustration that utility is not related exclusively to consumption i.e. there is no discernible explicit pleasure to be derived from consuming mountain climbing. On the contrary, it can be characterized as long periods of stultifying boredom punctuated by brief periods of terror.

It’s therefore important for us to look elsewhere to understand what utility individuals derive from this miserable undertaking. Perhaps then, utility isn’t just pleasure from rational preferential consumption. The paper suggests it is either some or all of the following non-consumption related outcomes: Self signalling ­­­- the useful need to impress oneself by signalling attributes; Meaning — human beings need to discover who they are and what they value; Mastery — humans are motivated by a desire to master their environment and be good at it i.e. the pleasures of skill; Goal completion — the desire to finish what one starts fuels this industry.

“If the old question, the one that Mallory tried to answer is a valid one, I have given up trying to meet it rationally” — David Roberts — Mountains of my Fear.

Uganda’s mountain slayers are no exception. Their reasons for why they do what they do is somewhat clearer even if not, ‘rational.’

II. “Because it is hard”

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon…We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too” — John F. Kennedy

In the book, The Road to Character, David Brooks combs through the extraordinary lives of historically significant figures. His conclusion was that “A life well lived, is life spent on the racks”. Struggle is our potion as human beings. Toil is a measure of motion and in many cases, motion is progress. When we do hard things, no matter the context, we make progress possible in a variety of frontiers of human existence.

Climbing mountains is hard, and in my assessment is precisely one of the reasons MSU has embraced this lifestyle.

III. “Because of the people”

“People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.” — Chinua Achebe

These are some of the people I observed and or interacted with along the way, followed by wild conjecture of who they appear to be, on the face of it:

• Paul (the Club President) is suave, a firm leader. Works the room effortlessly, very deliberately engaging.
• Angie is a mild mannered matriarch, which belies a gritty character
• Karen, is Afropolitan, that mix of sophisticated Afro cool and urbane cosmopolitan polish; that comes from not trying too hard
• Allan, is the resident slay hiker, with fixings even up to the small toe and my plug into the club
• Andrew, is a great story teller, a measured character
• Pablo, serves as the powertrain, a point of convergence for all functions
• Viv, a veteran, steady hand, engaging and vivacious
• Felix, Mr.Fix-it, laying tents, fixing boats and offering useful nuggets for survival
• Meital, a dynamic fluid individual fluent in the entire range of the experience
• MacWilliams, Energizer Bunny, committed and positively competitive
• Agasha, a kind introvert, nicely layered
• Kagimu, good nerd energy, and accommodative
• Sarah Jean, a bucket load of good vibes, a beacon of positive energy
• George Fundi, an illustration of “life is for the living”

A final thought. Realistically, MSU might not accommodate everyone because of practical logistical constraints, but their philosophy is free. You (reader) would do well to make use of it.

To Sum up, an exhortation, for it is not too late:

Come, my friends,
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Ulysses — Alfred, Lord Tennyson