I met Nadhira al Harthy for the first time when I was invited by the ambassador of Nepal to Oman, then Sarmila Parajuli Dhakal, to join the reception for her at the airport as she returned after making history - reaching the summit of Mount Everest.
“You made it!’ read the banner that her family members had made then. There was excitement in the air.
"We are proud of Nadhira's remarkable feat, making her an unstoppable winner and becoming the first Omani woman to summit the Mount Everest. Nadhira's win has gone a long way in demonstrating that women can achieve any goal that they are passionately determined to achieve and also put the Sultanate of Oman on international map," one of her supporters had said.
As reporters, we are trained to learn quickly about the topics and subjects of our interviews. Nadhira, I felt, had that quiet confidence in her. And from the very first interview her qualities were clear.
When asked what she would like to tell her beloved country and its people, she said, “I hope I did something for my country when I raised our Omani flag on top of the world. I am elated to see how happy everyone is to witness what we have achieved.”
The quiet mountaineer, who went on to climb many summits, was a geography teacher and I believe she would have talked about the summits in her classrooms.
Each time I interviewed her or heard her deliver speeches, she was teaching me things – things which no school can teach!
The most important one was gratitude.
When she was accorded a warm welcome on her return in Muscat this is what the jubilant Nadhira expressed her gratitude: “I am grateful to God that I made it to the top of the Mount Everest making my biggest dream come true."
She taught us to dream and dream big. She urged us to climb our personal Mount Everest.
She taught me that to achieve a dream we have to sacrifice.
I had asked her what was the most challenging part of it all and she replied with a smile, “The challenging part was to stay at the base camp. It was not easy. The food and water and everything we are used to in a day to day lifestyle are all different when you decide to live in nature. We are very far away and we must accept the way things are to stay healthy and do what we have to do.”
Staying healthy was the most significant aspect to achieve her goal of reaching the summit and she had always stayed focused.
But it all had one important element - discipline. She worked and trained hard. She did not just wake up one day and climb a mountain. What is interesting was that she even suffered from altitude sickness when she took her students to the Mount Kilimanjaro. Then she got inspired. She clubbed the inspiration with determination, where she found her mentor the mountaineer Khalid al Siyab, the first Omani man to summit the Mount Everest. Once her training began there was no looking back.
Her patriotism has been inspiring. She took her country wherever she went.
Why mountaineering?
She had begun climbing as a mission from the Ministry of Education with the students to climb the Kilimanjaro and from that time on she never lost sight of the mountains – she was always climbing.
What Nadhira taught us was to follow our hearts.
"Climbing makes me happy and complete. It touched my heart in a big way and I feel it is something I can do, so then I decided I will do something big. I went on to dream big,” Nadhira said, when speaking to the Observer at the reception that was hosted by the Embassy of Nepal just before her departure to Nepal on April 1, 2019.
Not many of us find our purpose in life easily. She found it and start to pursue it.
Yet another meeting was during the Sagarmatha Day celebration hosted by Nepal Ambassador to Oman, Dornath Aryal. Nadhira was a speaker and this is what she said that day "We could hear the sound of avalanches every day, but I was ready to go to the top of the world. Every step had a risk, but every risk was a step forward. I wanted to be on the Mount Everest summit." She explained at length about her training and how she prepared herself for the big climb. Her training was done on the Omani mountains in Al Rustaq, Al Jabal Al Akhdhar, Jabal Shams and so on and by participating in marathons. "Mountains can tell you everything," she said.
Her role as a mountaineer was growing as she contributed her insights at the Sagarmatha Sambaad, a flagship initiative of Nepal, aimed to promote inclusive dialogue and encourage meaningful collaboration and cooperation to achieve tangible solutions. A total number of 350 delegates, including 175 international delegates/participants, took part in the dialogue. Nadhira, who was then the first Omani woman to climb the Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), took part in the conference as a panellist. She shared her experiences of her expedition to Sagarmatha.
Nadhira has been contributing to the world on the understanding of nature and especially the mountains, one of the crucial factors when it comes to climate.
Nadhira, whatever you did, you did it with determination.
As they say, what has to happen will happen and you were, where you love the most - the mountains.
You will continue to inspire generations to come.
N is definitely for the National treasure called Nadhira Al Harthy.
Lakshmi Kothaneth
The writer is senior editor of Observer
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