無盡的攀登：Highest，fastest

本篇預計學習

分鐘

60

「

登山是一類比較常見的健身活動，此次端午佳節，想來這也是很多人的假期活動之一。

但是對於有些人，它卻不只是閑暇時光的選擇，而是一生的追求。他們的生命，是一場無止境的攀登……

」

Highest, fastest

最高，最快

［1］Ueli Steck, speed-soloingalpinist, died on April 30th, aged 40.

solo：徒手攀登，什麼都不佩戴，任何保護措施都不要的

alpinist：登山家，阿爾卑斯登山家

尤里·斯特克，速度徒手登山家，4月30日逝世，年僅40歲。

［2］THE most terrifying thing that happened to Ueli Steck was not the moment anavalanchecaught him onAnnapurna, the tenth-highest mountain in the world, and almost knocked him off. Nor was it the time when—perhaps because, on the same mountain, a rock hit hishelmet—he found himself in an instant 300 metres below,concussedandbruisedall over. Each event caused him towonderwhether he liked risky climbing too much. But as one of the best alpinists of hisgeneration, and often the fastest, he did not wonder long.

avalanche：雪崩；崩塌

Annapurna：安納布爾那山

helmet：頭盔; 鋼盔; 盔形物，盔狀物

[例句]He donned work clothes and a wicker helmet.

他穿上工作服，戴上柳條帽。

concuss：使震蕩，腦震蕩

bruised：[醫] 青腫的，瘀紫的

[例句]I had only bruised my knee.

我只是把膝蓋給碰傷了。

wonder：感到疑惑;納悶兒;想弄明白

generation：一代人，時代

發生在尤里·斯特克身上的最可怕的事情，既不是世界第十高峰安納布爾納峰雪崩擊中他並且差點把他擊倒。也不是在同樣的山上，岩石砸中他的頭盔後，他跌落了300米，造成了腦部震蕩和渾身錯多處擦傷。每每發生這樣的危險事情，就會導致他開始想自己是不是過於熱愛危險的攀登了，但作為那一代的徒手攀登最強者也常常是最快者，他沒有踟躕太久。

［3］No, the mostfrighteningepisodeoccurred in April 2013, when he found himself under attack by a crowd of rock-throwingsherpasat Base Camp II onEverest. That was the moment he thought he might die, a thought he had not had before. The sherpas were angry because, as they fixed the safety ropes above the camp, he andtwo others had ignored the rule to keep the mountain clear of climbers and had come up past them. He had no wish to bedisrespectful. But since he made no use of safety ropes, why shouldn』t he go up?

frightening：嚇人; 令人恐懼的; 引起突然驚恐的

[例句]It was a very frightening experience and they were very courageous.

那是一次讓人膽戰心驚的經歷，而他們表現得非常勇敢。

episode：插曲; 一集; 片段; 一段經歷;

[例句]This episode is bound to be a deep embarrassment for Washington

這一事件肯定會讓華盛頓非常難堪。

Sherpas：夏爾巴人（西藏的一個種族）( Sherpa的名詞複數 )

[例句]This time the party took porters from Hunza instead of Sherpas from Nepal.

這次探險隊沒有從尼泊爾僱傭夏爾巴人做挑夫，而是僱傭了罕薩人。

Everest：珠穆朗瑪峰

disrespectful：無禮的，不尊重的

以上都不是最恐怖的，最恐怖的事發生在2013年4月，珠穆朗瑪峰的二號基地上，他發現一群扔石頭的夏爾巴人要攻擊他，那時他第一次想到自己可能會死，而這種想法以前從未出現。夏爾巴人很生氣是因為，他們在固定帳篷的安全繩索的時候，斯特克和他的另外兩個同伴忽略了應該留出上方空地的規定，直接越過了那些固定繩索的夏爾巴人。斯特克並沒打算無禮，只是認為他既然不需要安全繩索，為什麼不能上去呢？

［4］Hehad a problem withpeople on mountains. Off the slopes he could begregariousand funny; on them, he became sointenselyfocused that he could not bear distraction. He climbed light, with just fourcarabiners, anice-pick,cramponson his boots, acoiledrope forrappellingon descents, and his own-brandtitaniumSwissArmy knife with a large file andbolt headwrench. To rely on any moregearwas onlyhalf-doingthe climb. He went up cleanly, leaving only his footprints.Supplementaryoxygen hescornedas 「false air」 and 「bottled doping」; he never used it.

have a problem with sth：不同意，反對，在某方面有困難或問題

gregarious：群居; 愛交際的，合群的;

[例句]She is such a gregarious and outgoing person.

她很外向，喜歡交朋結友。

intensely：強烈地，極度，劇烈地

carabiner：豎鉤

ice-pick：冰錐

crampons：鞋底釘，鐵鉤，攀登用鞋底釘( crampon的名詞複數 )

[例句]Using "evolved" techniques for crampons and tools.

使用冰爪和技術冰鎬「發展後的」技術。

coil：盤繞; 捲成一圈;繞成盤狀; 卷繞成圈

[例句]Tod shook his head angrily and slung the coil of rope over his shoulder

托德氣憤地搖了搖頭，然後把那捲繩子往肩上一搭。

rappel：繞繩下降；坐式下降法；用繩索下降;

[例句]They learned to rappel down a cliff.

他們學會了繞繩從絕壁上滑下。

titanium：鈦;

[例句]The company produces titanium alloy.

該公司生產鈦合金。

bolt head：螺栓頭

[例句]A wrench with a hook that fits over a nut or bolt head.

有一個鉤子套在螺母或螺栓頭的扳手。

wrench：扳手; 扭傷; 突然的悲痛

[例句]He felt two men wrench the suitcase from his hand

他感覺有兩個人在使勁拽他手裡的手提箱。

gear：服裝、設備

half-doing：事倍功半

supplementary：增補的，追加的;補充者; 增補物

[例句]Provide them with additional background or with supplementary information.

給他們提供額外的背景資料或補充信息。

scorn：蔑視; 輕視; 看不起; 不屑做;嘲笑; 表示輕蔑; 表示鄙視;

[例句]Researchers greeted the proposal with scorn

研究員們對這個建議嗤之以鼻。

他不喜歡山上有人。山下他可以是合群的，但在山上他必須全神貫注。他一向輕裝簡行，只帶四個豎鉤、一個冰錐、靴子上的鞋底釘、一卷下降用的繩子，和他自己品牌的鈦瑞士軍刀（帶有一個大的銼刀和螺栓扳手），而登山中再帶其他設備只是事倍功半。他來時身無長物，離開時也只留下足跡。備用的氧氣被他稱為「廢氣」和「裝在瓶子里的毒品」，他從來不用。

［5］Naturally, he preferred to climb alone.Troddentracksdeterredhim, and he would wait until fresh snowobscureda route in order to work out his own. After his marriage, he promised his wife he would not do solo climbs; but somehow the right partner did not appear, or gave up, and he had to go on by himself. On his firstexpedition, at 12 above his home inEmmentalwith an oldmountaineer, he was given the lead from the start; consequently, hefrettedto see anyone ahead of him.

trodden：踏出; 踩，踏( tread的過去分詞 ); 踩成; 步行於

[例句]The cattle had trodden a path to the pond.

牛群踏出了一條通往池塘的小徑。

deter：阻止，制止

obscure：遮掩；遮蔽；使模糊不清

expedition：考察，遠航

Emmental：埃默河谷

mountaineer：登山者，登山運動員

fretted：苦惱，煩惱，發愁

自然地，他更喜歡一個人攀登。如果前人踏出的痕迹阻止了他，他會等待新雪覆蓋所有的印記，這樣他就能開拓自己的路線了。他結婚後，向妻子保證說不會再進行徒手攀登。但有時合適的夥伴沒有出現或者放棄了，那他就不得不自己繼續。12歲那年在他家前的埃默河谷，和一位老登山家一起，開始他領隊，結果他不能忍受任何人在自己前面。

［6］Nor did he want help. On his firstascentof Everest in 2012 he insisted that his guide, Tenji Sherpa, was a partner, not an assistant. He wanted to be called 「Dai」, brother, not 「Sir」. He made the breakfast tea and they ate together,cornflakesorbarley tsampa, as the sun came up. This was both acourtesyand a statement of self-reliance. Pretty soon, as usual, hepeeled offand made for thesummitalone.

ascent：登高

Dai：表示兄弟，

cornflakes：脆玉米片

barley tsampa：大麥糌粑，糌粑是一種藏民常吃的一種食物。

courtesy：禮貌，謙恭

peel off：peel是皮，peel off就是剝皮，有剝離的含義，引申為離隊。

summit：山頂，頂峰

他也不想要幫助。在他2012年第一次登珠峰的時候，他堅持要導遊滕吉——一個夏爾巴人——作為同伴而非助手。他想被稱作「兄弟」而不是「先生」。太陽初升的時候，他會做早茶，兩個人一起享用脆玉米片和大麥糌粑。他這樣做一是禮貌另外也是自力更生的體現。很快，像平常一樣，他離開隊伍自己前往頂峰。

［7］The worst aspect of other climbers was that theyheld him back. Not for him 「the brotherhood of the rope」. Speed wasof theessence. In his ownAlpshe hadshatteredrecords: the north face of theEiger, a 1,800- metre ice-wall, climbed in 3:54 hours, the 2:47; the north face of theGrandes Jorasses, 1,200 metres, never climbed by him before, in 2:21; the north face of theMatterhornin 1:56. He would set twostopwatchesand race off, running when he could, or hurling in his ice-pick andhaulinghimself up after. Thesefeatsearned him thenickname「the Swiss machine」, which he hated. He was not a robot, more a cat or a spider, moving easily and with absolute long-armedprecisionon the sheerest, iciest rocks.

hold back：阻擋，阻止

of the essence：十分重要的

Alps：阿爾卑斯山

shatter：粉碎，碎裂

Eiger：艾格爾峰

Grandes Jorasses：[地名] [法國·義大利] 大若拉斯山

Matterhorn：[地名] [美國、南極洲] 馬特峰

stopwatches：（賽跑等記時用的）秒錶，跑表

haul：拖，拉，運送

feat：偉業，壯舉，卓絕的手藝

nickname：綽號

precision：精確度

其他登山者最糟糕的地方就是他們會拖後腿。繩索上的兄弟情不適合他。對他來說，速度是不可或缺的。在阿爾卑斯山他打破了記錄：艾格爾峰北面，一道1800米的冰牆，他只用了三小時54分鐘登上去，後來又提升到兩個小時47分鐘；大若拉斯山，他之前從未爬過，在兩個小時21分鐘時間內完成。馬特峰北壁在一個小時56分鐘內完成。攀登的時候，他會帶著兩個計時器，以競賽的速度，能跑的時候就跑，之後猛摔自己的冰錐，把自己拖拽上來。這些令人難以置信的攀登技巧，讓他獲得了瑞士機器的稱號，他很不喜歡這個名字。他不是機器人，更像是貓或者蜘蛛，能夠極其精準的清楚峭壁上冰岩石的位置。

［8］He argued that it was simply safer to climb fast, not tolingeron high mountains where the cold or the weather might kill you. But he also came to enjoy speed climbing forits own sake. His training regime bordered on craziness: 1,200workoutsa year, his routine run three laps up 2,000 vertical metres. Focus, focus, all the time. He had to make sure that every muscle was pulling; that way, he would know how long he couldclingto an ice-nub, or work anoverhang. On that first Everest climb he hadseethedbecause, without extra oxygen, he was overtaken by alpinists who had it. His slowness was unbearable. He didn』t just need to be better than other people, but better than himself.

linger：逗留，徘徊; 緩慢消失

[例句]The scent of her perfume lingered on in the room

她的香水味道在房間里久久不散。

its own sake：其自身的緣故

workout：體育鍛煉；體育訓練

cling：堅持;附著於，緊貼;抓緊或抱住

overhang：垂懸物；凸出物

seethe：生悶氣; 翻滾; 強壓怒火; 充滿

[例句]She took it calmly at first but under the surface was seething.

她起初平靜地接受了，但內心卻氣呼呼的。

他爭論說，僅僅是爬得快點會更安全，在高山上逗留寒冷或天氣可能會害死你。但是他自身也開始享受速度。他的生存法則近乎瘋狂：一年健身1200次體育鍛煉，一天三次還包括兩千米垂直跑。全程要專註再專註，那樣他才能確保每一條肌肉都在拉伸用力。他想知道他能在一個冰塊或垂懸物上掛多久。在第一次珠穆朗瑪峰攀登中，他很惱火，因為其他帶多餘的氧氣的登山者超過了他。他無法忍受慢。他不是僅僅要比別人強，而是要超越自己。

［9］Speed proved harder in theHimalayasthan in the Alps. His best time, though the avalanche wrecked his attempt to record it, was onAnnapurna』ssouth face in 2013:7,219 metres up and down alone in 28 hours (the next party took the usual eightdays). He returned this April to plan another ascent of Everest with atraversetoLhotse, the world』s fourth-highest peak, by a route not tried before. He fell to his death while climbing Nuptse first; he was going to go with Tenji Sherpa but, again, was alone. He felt 「super-ready」; why wait?

Himalayas：喜馬拉雅山脈

[例句]Few Europeans who had ventured beyond the Himalayas had returned to tell the tale.

少數幾個冒險翻越了喜馬拉雅山的歐洲人回來後講述了這個故事。

Annapurna：安娜普爾那峰

traverse：橫穿，橫貫

Lhotse：洛子峰

比起阿爾卑斯山，在喜馬拉雅山上想保持速度更加艱難。儘管當時發生雪崩使得他自己沒能記錄時間，他的最佳成績就是2013年在28小時之內往返攀爬海拔7219米的安娜普爾那峰南壁，接下來的登山團隊仍然是花費了8天的時間完成往返。今年四月，他返回珠穆拉瑪峰，準備攀登洛子峰——世界第四高峰，通過一條沒人試過的路線。開始攀登洛子峰時，他就身亡了。他本來要和登山夥伴滕吉一起去，但最後再一次一個人。他覺得自己完全準備好了，為什麼要等呢？

The endless challenge

永無止境的挑戰

［10］In his speed anddaring, he was unusual among climbers. In his attitude to high mountains, he was not. There was norhapsodizing. At the top of Everest it was his success that was 「beautiful」, not the view, which he found 「familiar」. Mountains

challenged him, so he took up the challenge, again and again, to prove himself.

daring：膽量;勇氣;冒險精神

rhapsodize：狂熱地說，寫作狂想詩文

[例句]The critics rhapsodized over her performance in Autumn Sonata .

評論家對於她在電影《秋日奏鳴曲》中的表演大加讚賞。

他的速度和勇氣與其他登山者都不同。在對於高山的態度上，卻是一樣的。沒有狂熱的讚美。站在珠穆朗瑪峰頂，美好的是他成功了，而不是風景，風景都是相似的。一座座高山挑戰著他，他一次又一次接受挑戰來證明自己。

［11］So too did Min Bahadur Sherchan, aNepalesewho, on May 6th, died at the Everest base camp. He was 85, and planned to become the oldest person to reach the summit. He had set the record in 2008, at 76; a Japanese had broken it five years later. This was his fourth attempt toregainit. Mr Sherchan had several aims in mind, including promoting peace and inspiring the old. But he had no ambition to break anyone else』s record, he said; just his own. This was between the mountain, and him. It might have been Ueli Steck speaking.

Nepalese：尼泊爾的;尼泊爾人

[例句]The Nepalese side expressed sincere appreciation for the kind gesture and understanding.

尼方對中方的善意和理解表示衷心感謝。

regain：重返

米恩·巴哈多爾·謝爾陳，以為尼泊爾人，也是這樣。他在5月6日攀登珠穆朗瑪峰的路上不幸身亡。他已經85歲了，計劃成為達到頂點年齡最大的人。2008年，76歲的他創下記錄，五年後被一個日本人打破。這是他的第四次嘗試重返珠峰。謝爾陳先生有幾個目的，包括促進和平和鼓勵老年人。但是他說並不想打破任何人的記錄，只是突破自己。這時山和他之間的事。也許這也是尤里·斯特克想說的。

對於尤里·斯特克這樣的登山者，也許除了死亡，沒有什麼能阻止他們前行的腳步。然而即使是死亡，也不能打倒人類不斷探索的精神，因為每一個倒下的登山者後面，都有一個鬥志昂揚剛剛開始的新人。

每個人的生命都是一場無止境的攀登，只是每個人心中的「珠穆朗瑪峰」各不相同。「會當凌絕頂，一覽眾山小」，古往今來的仁人志士無不是不斷追求挑戰，努力超越自己，而希望我們都能勇於為了自己的理想而奮鬥，不畏艱險，有登臨絕頂的那一天。

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