In mathematics, the mountain climbing problem is a problem of finding the conditions that two functions forming profiles of a two-dimensional mountain must satisfy, so that two climbers can start on the bottom on the opposite sides of the mountain and coordinate their movements to meet (possibly at the top) while always staying at the same height. This problem was named and posed in this form by James V. Whittaker , but its history goes back to Tatsuo Homma , who solved a version of it. The problem has been repeatedly rediscovered and solved independently in different context by a number of people (see references below).