Did the person who measured it climb it? / Stories about mountain names (3) [Awai no Hanashi #6]

While researching K2, I suddenly became curious about something.

K2 is not the name of the mountain, but was originally a survey number.

And it was the British in the 19th century who measured that mountain.

That is as far as the previous story went.

But beyond that, I had a simple question.

Did those people climb it to measure it?

Hearing that they measured the height, I assumed they must have actually climbed it to measure it.

That is what I felt.

The person who measured it and the person who climbed it were different

However, in reality, it was different.

The height of K2 was measured in 1856.

The first person to stand on the summit appeared in 1954.

There is a gap of about 100 years.

Moreover, the first to reach the summit were not the British, but an Italian team.

I was a little surprised.

It was not the case that the person who measured it climbed it.

Furthermore, the country of the first ascent is different, and it took 100 years until someone climbed it.

Their goal was not the summit

The surveyors of that time were not aiming for the mountain summits.

They measured angles from far away and calculated the heights.

They were creating maps using a method called triangulation.

That's right. They could measure them without climbing.

In fact, it might be harder to determine the height if you were actually climbing.

Their goal was perhaps

not "how far they could go,"
"knowing what was there."

that might have been it.

Knowing versus going

We have many places that we know.

Places we have read about in books.

Places we have seen in photographs.

Scenery we have seen on social media.

But for most of them, we have never actually been there.

It is similar with people.

We know their names.

We know their backgrounds.

We read their posts.

However, if asked whether we truly know that person, we might hesitate a little.

Knowing and going.

Knowing and encountering.

There is a surprisingly large distance between the two.

Before the journey begins

But I also think about this.

What if no one had measured the height of K2?

What if no one had told anyone about the existence of that mountain?

Would anyone have appeared who wanted to go there?

People cannot aim for a place they do not know.

First, someone

“There is something here.”

tells us.

And after that, the journey begins.

The people who knew the height of K2 were not standing on the summit.

But perhaps it was precisely because they knew its height

that someone eventually appeared who wanted to go there.

Knowing and going are different.

However,

without knowing, the journey cannot begin.

We, too,

Triggered by books, maps, or someone's story,

you might be heading to a place you have never been to before.

In the meantime,

between "knowing" and "having been there,"

there might be a feeling of "I want to go there."

If you would like to listen to this story in audio, click here.

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