Few of us give any thought to the air we breathe every day. But to a global mountaineer and conservationist like Yasuhiro Hanatani, air can be a precious commodity when battling extreme conditions of thin air at high elevations. Recently, we talked with him about his perception of air and how his experiences might relate to our own lives and the need for a sustainable society. The insights that he shares here begin another journey of exploration in the profound world of “Air.”
From the Kobe Mountains of His Youth to Challenging Virgin Roads and Peaks
Having lived and grown up in Kobe until the Great Hanshin Earthquake, my familiarity with the surrounding Kobe mountains began from a young age. My grandfather would often take me hiking along the trails of Mount Rokko, providing me with my first encounter with “the mountains.” From then on, the decisions that I made about my education revolved entirely around mountains. I attended Kobe High School, which was known for having the best mountaineering club in Hyogo Prefecture at the time, and later I entered Shinshu University, which was based solely on my desire to climb mountains.
While attending university, I would often leave Japan to travel the globe to climb mountains, including those in the Himalayas and the Andes. In climbing those overseas mountains, I focused on challenging routes, including virgin peaks, in which I risked my life with each climb that I took. Like most people in my generation, I was inspired by adventurer Naomi Uemura and wanted to follow in his footsteps someday into “a world teetering between life and death.”
To me, the true enjoyment of mountain climbing is “living on the edge” in the knowledge that one wrong step could be your last. Needless to say, it’s a type of unpredictable natural environment where anything can happen to those humans choosing to enter it.
Learning an “Appreciation for Air” in Extreme Environments
As a mountaineer, I’ve experienced many brutal environments. Especially at high elevations, the scarcity of air can truly become an issue of life and death. At 5,000 meters or higher, oxygen concentration becomes half of that at sea level, which means somebody suddenly placed in that environment could easily lose his or her own life.
However, humans are equipped with an incredible ability to adapt and survive in these environments. As you become gradually acclimated to the conditions, you will be able to move even when you reach a thinner oxygen environment at 6,000 to 7,000 meters. This is when the real effects of the air are harshly felt. The higher the altitude, the thinner the oxygen becomes and the more difficult the climb is, but you must still push yourself to keep moving. It is at these times that I truly have an enormous appreciation for air.
Beholding the True Color of the Sky at the Summit
When you climb through thin air to reach a mountaintop, you suddenly realize that the color of the sky has a completely different look to it than usual. What we call “sky blue” is completely different from the blue sky that I see spread out before me at the summit. It could be the complex interaction between sunlight and the reflection of the snow that changes the color of air, but the sky seems to transcend simple blue to one not unlike the color seen from a space capsule re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.
What's strange is that even though you could be in an airplane at the same altitude, the color of the sky that you see then is significantly different from the view seen at the top of a mountain. The sky that I see at the summit is an incredibly deep blue, and whenever I see it, I relive the amazement that I felt when I first saw one of these “special views.” It is a privilege afforded only to those who climb to the top of a mountain on foot.
Surprisingly, you feel your greatest “appreciation for air,” not when you are climbing to the top, but rather when you are returning from it. The air, which was thin when you started descending, gradually becomes thicker, and plants gradually emerge, transforming from a world of nothing but rocks, ice, and snow into a forest. You start your descent from a world where humans cannot survive and arrive at one where they can.
This is when I once again feel a heartfelt reverence for our precious earth and appreciation for air.
Seeking “Comfortable Air” between City and Nature
I believe that “Air” can be divided into two categories: “physical air,” which includes the oxygen necessary for human survival, and “atmosphere,” which includes the ambience it creates.
How can humans survive when they step into a world where they cannot exist? It's because of the existence of “physical air.” I’m mindful of this when I'm in the mountains and have nothing but gratitude for it.
At the same time, when I think of air as “atmosphere,” I think of spaces located a little outside the city where people tend to feel the most comfortable.
Surrounding yourself in comfortable spaces sharpens your sensibilities. For example, we all know how some people suddenly get an idea while taking a walk in a nearby park. Well, for me, ideas come when I’m in the mountains. Most of my best ideas have occurred when I've been alone in the mountains. The effect of “Air” definitely was a substantial part of it.
This is the reason that I feel a strong sense of crisis for people today: we no longer have a direct connection between our own daily lives and the forest. Simply put, the distance between people and nature has increased.
To close this distance, I believe it's necessary to first “get in touch with nature.” That doesn’t mean working to improve the environment or activities like that, but rather it’s about ensuring that people can live comfortably. Great ideas emerge precisely because there are spaces and places where people feel comfortable and say, “This is beautiful” or “This is wonderful.” I believe that giving renewed attention to the “Air” that we breathe every day and the rich natural environment that nurtures it will lead us to even greater creativity.
