People climb mountains for no clear purpose. The best reason to climb a giant peak at the cost of life and limb is George Mallory's famous saying, "Because the mountain is there." In the process of ineffable pursuit, climbers constantly challenge their physical limits to achieve higher, more difficult and more beautiful climbs. So it's no surprise that their feats fascinated so many people.
For thousands of years, the world's mountain ranges have been mostly off the beaten track. Home to gods and monsters, the mountains are seen as dangerous, desolate, and mysterious places that are shunned by almost everyone except a few merchants and religious figures who aspire to live alone. In Europe, it was not until the Renaissance, when climbers such as the Swiss zoologist Conrad Gesner climbed Mount Pilatus to resist local superstitions and customs, that the public began to stop fearing the mountains. The mountaineering experiences described by Gessner and other climbers, and the joy found in the mountains, inspire followers to flock to the mountain.
The source of this article: "DK Human Mountaineering History: A Great Story about Courage and Conquest", edited by the Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Mountaineering Club, translated by Li Rucheng, Shanghai Culture Publishing House, January 2020 edition.
Author 丨 Royal Geographical Society
British Alpine Mountaineering Club
Excerpt 丨An also
In the mid-19th century, mountaineering ushered in a "golden age", with British gentlemen competing to announce their first ascent to the highest peak of the Alps, and modern mountaineering came into being. Climbing freely among the mountains makes people feel less bound by society, and women have begun to participate in mountaineering activities.
In 1992, French rock climber Catherine Detiveler grabbed the edge of the Moses Tower in Utah, USA, with her body suspended in mid-air.
Soon, the first catastrophe in the history of mountaineering occurred. In 1865, Edward Wyber made his first ascent of the Matterhorn, and four companions were killed on their way down the mountain, ending in tragedy. The debate over mountaineering began here and continues to this day. Is the income from climbing enough to compensate for the loss? Next is the story of climbers who lost their lives while climbing or survived disasters with endurance, teamwork and luck.
In 1885, it was a group photo taken by a Zermatt guide posing with a hiking cable and an ice axe.
By the 20th century, climbers' attention was drawn to the great Asian mountains where the world's highest peaks were located. Large expeditions marched towards peaks above 8,000 meters — the 14 peaks of the Himalayas and Karakoram — and the conquest of the peaks became the pride of the nation. Today, mountaineering is no longer a recreational activity of high society. A new generation of dedicated and skilled professional climbers is on the rise, and new mountaineering equipment has revolutionized mountaineering. With the improvement of technology, people are paying more and more attention to the way of mountain climbing. People are proactive in finding challenging routes, especially climbing the steep north wall. Purist climbers prefer fast, lightweight "Alpine", climbing, and when they leave, the mountain remains as it is. Almost every time someone climbs a famous mountain, the word "probably" is redefined. In 1980, the legend of Reinhold Messner alone climbing Mount Everest without an oxygen cylinder shocked the world.
Jean-Christophe Lafayette (1965-2006) was an outstanding rock climber and became a guide in the 1990s.
From the first pioneers of mountaineering to today's mountaineering masters, although the reasons for mountaineering are difficult to express, mountaineering has indeed brought great rewards to people. Regarding the dangers of mountaineering, British mountaineer Mick Fowler said: "We enjoyed it, survived, and can continue to climb in the coming day." That's what matters. ”
What is the point of mountaineering?
Historically, deep mountain forests have often been seen as tiger's dens and wolf nests, with infamous bandits and demons haunting. However, humans have lived on the high mountains for thousands of years, solving the same survival problems faced by modern climbers, and they have paid off.
You don't have to be a mountaineer and know that the weather in the mountains is worse. First, the mountains are colder, with temperatures dropping by about 6°C for every 1,000 meters of elevation increase. Because the huge mountain body intercepts the air flow, the wind on the mountain is also stronger. The airflow is blocked and can only rise, so as you climb up, the wind gets stronger. Air currents rise, temperatures drop, and finally rain or snowfall forms.
Extreme weather puts people in a difficult situation, so what is the significance of mountain climbing in the era when there were no down jackets and raincoats? For those who are not afraid of difficulties and have the courage to challenge, the mountain offers them a unique advantage. Even today, mountain dwellers can survive the winter by hunting and raising livestock on plateau pastures.
dairy product
(e.g. cheese)
It is the daily food of mountain dwellers. Early Alpine climbers would eat a cheese fondue meal with their guide the night before the climb. Swiss climber Éhad Loretán is one of the finest cheese-based high-altitude climbers in the world.
Nomadic life in mountainous areas is fluid. Tenzin Nolgai, one of the first everest climbers, may have been born in a tent next to a yak herd, far from his parents' hometown. The rough and slippery texture of the tent woven with yak hair allows the smoke from burning yak manure to dissipate and prevent rain.
Precious resources in mountainous areas are in short supply in the lowlands, such as the lapis lazuli used to make the death mask of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, which is produced in the Badak Mountains of present-day Afghanistan, thousands of kilometers from Egypt.
Stills from the movie "Desperate Altitude".
For those displaced, the mountains are a refuge for those who live near Mount Everest, such as the Sherpas who lived near Mount Everest, and the Kas who migrated to the mountains of central and western Nepal in the 15th century as a result of the Mughal invasion.
Spiritual and political security is a common theme in mountainous areas around the world. Tibetan Buddhism has a legend of the "secret realm", which is a hidden valley for practitioners in distress to take refuge. In the 19th century, imam Shamir, the "lion of Islam", was a fortress in the Caucasus Mountains, which made the army of the Russian Empire difficult. Until the 14th century, like the Pueblo people of ancient North America, the Trim people had been living on the cliffs of Bangjagala in present-day Mali.
The 5,000-year-old body of Oates found in the Austrian Ötztal Alps reveals an ancient connection between humans and the mountains. The earliest mountaineering pioneers faced the same problems as modern climbers, although the latter were protected by the latest technology. When traversing the snow, they all have to beware of frostbite or slips, fend off the cold, and challenge the complex terrain.
While the mountain travelers of Oates's time lacked the protection of modern textiles, their wisdom was staggering. Modern polar adventurers such as Fritschev Nansen also like them, tucking the same kind of grass in their shoes to keep warm. Oates also carried a back pocket and a leather hat on his head, similar to the attire common in the Himalayas today. After crossing Greenland in 1888, Nansen learned kayaking with the Inuit of Gott hobbe, a technique that was at least 4,000 years old. Many of the equipment used by climbers – such as ropes, stud boots, skis and ice axes – also has a long history.
Mountain hut. With the rise of mountaineering, these mountain huts are popping up in the Alps, where guides and climbers can take a break before continuing their climb.
For centuries, people didn't understand the medical reasons, but they always knew that climbing at high altitudes can cause physiological problems. In the Andean region, people relieve altitude sickness by chewing coca leaves or drinking coca tea. People in the world who have lived in high altitudes for a long time, their bodies have adapted to local life. People in Tibet have special genetic adaptations to the hypoxia environment of the plateau, especially the ability to give birth in a low-oxygen environment.
Climbers 5,000 years ago,
The Secret of Oates the Iceman
In 1991, in the Alpine Pass between Austria and Italy, a corpse of about 5,000 years old was found in the snow and ice, the earliest evidence that humans had entered the mountains and completely changed people's understanding of Neolithic life in Europe. The body, found in the Ötztal Alps, was soon named "Oates the Iceman" and caused a stir in the archaeological community due to its good preservation. Although the reasons for Oates' climb to the Alps are unclear, he can be considered the first famous mountaineer in history.
On September 19, 1991, German hikers Erica Simon and Helmut Simon climbed Finnell Peak at an altitude of 3,516 meters on the Italian-Austrian border, slightly off the main route as they descended the Thyssen Ridge to the nearby Siriravion rest stop. They stumbled upon a narrow ravine surrounded by low rocks, filled the bottom with ice and a pile of debris on the surface.
Looking closer, they were horrified to find that exposed to the ice was a man's head and torso. The Simons rushed back to the rest stop and reported their findings to the administrators. At the time, there was no indication that the bodies in the ice were not the remains of hikers who had gone lost in the mountains.
The Iceman was found at an altitude of 3210 meters above sea level on the edge of the Lower Jochferna Glacier. In the more than 70 years after the end of World War I and the demarcation of the Italian-Austrian border, the glacier gradually receded. Changes in the terrain have led to initial uncertainty as to which side of the border line the bodies were found. Austria was the first to send a rescue helicopter into the mountains on September 20. At this time, the body was exposed to 10 centimeters of ice, but even with the use of pneumatic chisels, the rescue team could not move it. The rescue team later left with an axe found on a nearby rock shelf, hoping to determine whether the deceased was a recently killed hiker or an earlier climber.
The next day, Reinhold Messner, an Italian mountaineer who happened to be also in the area, and his companion Hans Carmelander visited the site and found more artifacts, including a container made of birch bark, a shoe and a bow. On September 23, a second government rescue team finally exhumed the body from the ice and transported it to Innsbruck, Austria, along with broken clothing and other artifacts, for routine autopsies. Messner had thought the dead might have been hundreds of years old, and it wasn't until after an autopsy that archaeologist Conrad Spindler discovered the startling truth: a corpse from more than 5,000 years ago. It is the most complete surviving corpse from the Copper Age, while the clothing and tools found are still the same as the daily necessities of the Neolithic people.
In early October, the team conducted a modest search of the place where the body was found, and found more artifacts, including the straw cloak that the Iceman wore as a coat. At this time, everything about the Iceman Oates had been handed over to the Italian authorities in Bolzano, as a more detailed investigation revealed that the body had happened to have been found inside the Italian border. Further investigations in July of the following year revealed more items belonging to the Iceman, along with muscle fragments and hair, and even a fingernail.
By this time, medical examinations began to reveal true information about the Iceman, albeit more about his physical condition than his identity and how he died in an isolated Alpine pass.
In addition to the damage to the left hip caused by the initial movement, Oates's body was nearly intact. After his death, the body was covered in a layer of breathable snow, freeze-dried and became flexible, and even after 5,000 years, it did not fall apart because of movement. Oates is an adult male, about 1.59 meters tall and weighing about 50 kilograms, although his hair was completely lost when he was found, but it is speculated that his hair is dark brown or black, and he is likely to have a beard. His teeth were worn by long chewing of grain mixed with stones, but they did not decay. The fractured part of its left rib has been completely healed, and there is an unhealed wound on the right side, which may be a new wound left before the gas was lost.
It was the people who killed Oates, not the mountains
The raw data provided by the corpse and the time it has been there has been an astonishing discovery, and the detailed examination of the artefacts found at the same time over the next decade, as well as further data analysis, have brought Oates's story to life.
Whoever Oates was, judging by what he was wearing, he wasn't completely unprepared before he went into the mountains. While most of the Neolithic clothes previously discovered—in fact, tiny fragments—were woven, the Iceman's clothes were made mostly of leather or fur, better suited to the cold environment of the Alps high.
He wore a bearskin hat with two leather ties, a tunic sewn from sheepskin, knee-length, rectangular when unfolded, wrapped in goatskin on his legs, and a leather loin cloth around his lower body. In addition, he wore a straw cloak that shielded him from the wind and rain and served as a tarp or blanket while he slept.
Oates took a full set of weapons up the hill. His copper axe indicates that he lived in an era when knowledge of metalmaking was already widespread in Europe, and was the first well-preserved prehistoric axe with an axe handle to be found.
His equipment includes a triangular bladed flint dagger and a tool dedicated to polishing flintware. A net that could catch rabbits seemed to indicate that he was ready to hunt, but there were also signs that his travel was in a hurry. His bow, made of a 1.8-meter-long piece of yew wood, is a semi-finished piece, perhaps forced to make on his way. The quiver contained only two well-made flint arrows and twelve unpolished shafts.
On his last trip, Oates carried a basket from larch and hazelnut trees, two birch bark containers, one of which was used for charcoal for heating, and some chaga, probably for lighting fires. There are also things of unknown use, including a small tassel-shaped object and a pair of antelope horns. The food scraps in Oates' stomach suggest that he ended up eating stews, vegetables, and single-grain wheat (an early type of wheat). From all this, Oates seemed to be no stranger to the mountains, and later the researchers analyzed the pollen on his body and found that he had drunk water in Katherineburg, and it took 12 hours to walk south from where he died.
At that time, it was not possible to determine whether it was his hometown. Analysis of isotopes in Oates' teeth suggests that he lived as a child in the upper Oraac River lower in the Italian province of Bolzano.
Initially, scientists thought Oates died around September. His axe and quiver fell separately on two stones, indicating that he had died accidentally. Presumably, he went to the mountains for two reasons, either for business or shepherding sheep, or because he was forced to take refuge in the pass valley, perhaps due to hypothermia.
Later discoveries of pollen indicate that he actually died in early spring or early summer, but there may have been snow in the places he traveled.
In 2001, new X-rays dramatically overturned previous speculation about the cause of his death. X-rays showed an arrow embedded in Oates's left shoulder, cutting off a large blood vessel above his lungs, causing massive bleeding that could kill him within minutes.
The scientists also found that the abrasions on Oates's hands were consistent with those caused by a freehand fight; his skull was also severely damaged, caused by a violent blow or impact. This valuable new information suggests that Oates did not die in a direct-to-death cliff crash or from incapacitation after falling off a cliff – as many climbers have since done. It was clear that he had been murdered. His equipment suggests that he may have been chased by violent intruders and fled from his home to a place that was hidden but not unfamiliar to him. While we can't be sure if Oates had been to the site of his death before, it's certain that it was the man who killed him, not the mountain.
Today, the mummies of Oates and the artifacts found together are preserved in the Archaeological Museum of South Tyrol in the Italian province of Bolzano, and are the subject of ongoing research. The mummies are stored in sophisticated cold rooms at temperatures set at -6°C and 98% relative humidity, artificially recreating the glacial conditions at the time of Ottes' discovery. Those who visit the museum can see the mummies from a small window. Recently, to mark the 20th anniversary of the discovery of Oates, restoration experts created a new model of the Iceman based on CAT scans, three-dimensional images of the skull, and infrared imaging and other data. The model, which came out in 2011, looks much older than 45 — the age scientists believe Oates died.
In some cultures,
The mountain is regarded as the place where the gods lived
Mountains are not only physical entities, they also embody the ideas, needs and fears of different peoples in less historical times. In some cultures, they are revered as places where the gods live.
There is a passage in the Ancient Indian Mythological Book of the Past That extolls the charm of the Himalayas: "In the long river of centuries of divine history, I cannot describe to you the glory of Himachal... Just as the morning dew is dried by the morning sun, the sins of mankind disappear by seeing Himachal. ”
In Tibet, China, in the northern Himalayas, the ancient culture of mountain worship saw the mountain as a symbol of the god of war. According to the Tibetans, their first ruler was God, who descended from the sky along a magical rope of light and landed on Yala Chambord, a sacred peak in the valley of the Brahmaputra River. When Master Lotus brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century, he "conquered" these gods, making them protectors of sacred scenery.
Stills from the movie The Climber.
In Hinduism and Buddhism, the idea of mountains as shelters is also deeply rooted. In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, Prince Arjuna trekked to the Himalayas to seek help from King Shiva. As he departed, he said: "The mountain will always be a refuge for the good and the hermits who practice the law of righteousness and do the sacraments and find the way to heaven." ”
When Muslims arrived in South Asia in the 12th century, the Himalayas became another form of refuge, just as Hindus fled to remote valleys. The Kalash people of Chitral in northern Pakistan are the surviving people who once lived in the ancient Hindu Kush region.
The ancient Greek gods of Mount Olympus were vengeful and capricious, but Mount Olympus seemed to have been a myth, an idealized mountain. It was only later that the mountain was associated with a specific mountain – a snow-covered peak that was 2,917 meters high and straddled Thessaly and Macedonia in Greece.
In other ancient European cultures, mountains also held a prominent place and were often thought to inhabit demons or ghosts. After Christianity arrived here, the more positive attitudes of the pagans toward nature were banned, and this belief became more common.
In Scandinavia, mountains are home to trolls who lure people into their alpine nests. "bergtagning" in Swedish
(Abduction)
The word, and "taking to the mountain"
(Brought into the mountains)
Refers to being seduced or even possessed by a monster. Northern Germany has many cultural ties to Scandinavia, and the Harts Mountains have always had legends about witches who are said to have partyed with demons on Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains, as recorded in Faust, and whose hero of the same name also joined the summit demon. About 300 days a year, Brocken Peak is shrouded in clouds, which is one reason for the many legends.
The "Ghost of Mount Brocken" derives from the name of this mountain. This is a light illusion that occurs when the low sun shines through the back of a person who is looking down at the fog on a ridge or summit. Atmospheric conditions cause the shadow to move forward, forming a huge ghostly silhouette. Due to the diffraction of light, the human head is usually surrounded by a colorful halo, which people call "glory". In German culture, these phenomena are considered a harbinger of disaster. However, monks on Mount Emei in Sichuan, China, see these phenomena as good omens, and halos are seen as sacred signs.
Before the arrival of the Romans, the Celtic tribes ruled the Alps. According to the Roman historian Livy, the Celts worshipped the gods, and the Romans called it punic, derived from the Celtic word for "pen", which means summit. In the Grand Saint Bernard Pass in Switzerland, a temple for Punic was excavated. The Romans themselves did not appreciate the Alps, considered them hateful, and basically turned a blind eye to them. However, they grasped the connection between the Alps and politics, especially after the invasion of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. With the advent of Christianity, the Celtic gods of France and Switzerland were eradicated, but their connection to the mountains lasted longer in Britain. In Britain, pagan attitudes toward nature were used to spread faith. In Ireland, the tradition of pilgrimage mountains is similar to the Chinese Tibetan custom of revering the landscape and turning the mountain.
From fear to understanding:
Not only theological metaphors,
Mountains are also real objects
When Christianity emerged in the 1st century AD, it inherited the tenets of the Old Testament in many ways, including a focus on the imagery of the mountain. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important sermons of Jesus Christ, probably on a mountain promontory near Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, and at the end of his life he spent his last night on the Mount of Olives before Judah's betrayal of him and was crucified on The Calvarian Mountain outside Jerusalem.
Previous Christian religions regarded the mountain as a place where the gods lived. When Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, its leaders sought to reclaim or destroy the holy sites of the ancient religions, many of which were located on the hills. In places such as the Hartz Mountains in Germany and the Grand Saint Bernard Pass in Switzerland, pagan temples have been destroyed – as they are in towns and forests on the plains.
Elsewhere, however, there was a belief that God dwelt on the mountain, and it was no accident that the Monastery of St. Catherine of Egypt in the mid-6th century AD chose to be built at the foot of Mount Sinai. There are many monasteries on the top of Greek hilltops, such as Mount Athos and the monastery houses on the top of the towering Meteora Mountain, which act as shelters like the remote retreats in the Egyptian desert.
The mountain is often the place where Christian saints defeat their enemies. In Ireland, St. Patrick is said to have climbed a peak in Mayo in 441 AD, following Jesus' fast in the desert, fasting on the mountain for 40 days before driving the forces of evil out of the country.
Theologically speaking, a more nuanced view of the mountains comes from St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine, a North African theologian of the early 5th century, wrote: "There are those who, admiring the peaks of the mountains, the waves of the sea, the rapids of the rivers, the circulation of the oceans, and the movement of the shops, but neglect themselves. In other words, he argues that focusing too much on the physical world could lead to the death of the spiritual world.
The Everest expedition in 1922 pioneered the use of bottled oxygen. In the picture, Mallory (left) and Norton, both wearing oxygen masks, set a new height record with Somerville, who took the photo.
Pilgrimages to the mountains eventually became part of the Christian spirit. In addition to monasteries, among the many peaks, the Roche Mellon Peak, located in the Susa Valley in the Piedmont region of Italy, is particularly striking. At the beginning of the 14th century, an Asti knight named Bonifacio Rotario dragged a heavy brass triptych of the Virgin Mary to the summit. Faithful Christians climb the mountain every year to pay homage to the bronze statue, but because many people fell to their deaths while descending the mountain, the bronze statue was eventually brought back to the town.
In the strict sense of the word, climbing the mountain itself is a matter of last resort, no matter how fervently the traveler prays for God's protection. In Europe, it was not until the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that people's fear of mountains and religious reverence began to shift, believing that mountains were nothing more than something that was known to man. In the long narrative poem "Divine Comedy"
(c. 1308–1321)
In this, the great Italian poet Dante metaphorically portrays the mountain he cannot climb as the soul sublimating from hell, crossing the steep and winding road of purgatory to the summit of heaven on earth. The language Dante used to describe the mountains shows that he was very familiar with them.
Over the next 200 years, scholars, writers, and thinkers built on his work to provide people with a more complex image of the mountain. The mountain is not just a theological metaphor, but a real object that can be described, experienced, and even classified.
This article is selected from the "DK Human Mountaineering History", which has been abridged and modified compared with the original text, and the subtitle is added by the editor, not owned by the original text. It has been authorized by the publishing house to publish.
Author 丨The Royal Geographical Society, The Alpine Climbing Club of the United Kingdom
Editor 丨 Li Yongbo
Proofreading 丨 Liu Jun