01/11/25
News
In the October 2025 issue of National Geographic Italia, Fabiano Ventura takes readers back to the “romantic” era of mountain surveying, before the advent of GPS technology, when determining the elevation of a summit was an undertaking that combined scientific rigor with a spirit of adventure.
The article retraces the techniques used by surveyors between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to measure mountain heights: from triangulation with theodolites and trigonometric leveling to the earliest applications of aerial photogrammetry. It was an extraordinary task, made even more challenging by the need to correct calculations for the Earth’s curvature and atmospheric refraction. Reliable measurements could only be obtained on exceptionally clear days.
The article is illustrated with a historic photograph by Vittorio Besso (Lake San Grato, Valgrisenche, c. 1875), depicting surveyors at work in the Graian Alps—an image that perfectly captures the spirit of that era. This legacy of precision continues today: as highlighted in the article, the integration of historical surveying methods with modern technologies is helping to redefine the ranking of the world’s highest peaks.
Through Ventura’s perspective, photography emerges not merely as an aesthetic practice, but as an essential tool for mapping and understanding the vertical world, bridging the dedication of past generations with the satellite technologies of the present.