It's tough at the top

admin管理员组

文章数量:1530827

2024年1月18日发(作者：)

It's Tough at the Top 艰难登顶

摘自：英语泛读教程

Mount Everest has long been a great attraction to millions of people throughout the world.

Many people have risked and lost their lives in the course of expedition. Modern explorers,

however, are becoming more fascinated by the ultimate fate of earlier doomed explorers.

珠穆朗玛峰对于全世界数百万人来说， 长期以来有着巨大的吸引力。在征服珠穆朗玛峰的过程中，许多人冒了巨大的危险，而且失去了生命。然而，现代探险者对早年遭到厄运的攀登者的最终命运，表现出越来越浓厚的兴趣。

"Because it's there," George Mallory reportedly replied when asked why he wanted to climb

Mount Everest. The only man to take part in all three of the British pioneering expeditions in

the 1920s, Mallory was driven by a fascination to reach the summit of the mountain with

which he had formed a strong personal bond with. "It's an hell-like mountain, cold and

treacherous," he once wrote in a letter home from Everest Base Camp. "The risks of getting

caught are too great; the margin of strength when men are at great heights is too small.

Perhaps it is mere folly to go up again. But how can I be out of the hunt?"

据说,当乔治·马罗礼被问及他为何要攀登珠峰时，他这样回答，“因为有珠峰”。 他是唯一参加二十世纪二十年代英国组织的 所有三次征服珠峰活动的探险家。他对珠峰怀有强烈的情感，一直神往登上山顶。“它是一座魔鬼般的大山，冷峻而且反复无常，”他在珠峰大本营给家人写信时有一次这样写道。“冒的险实在太大；人们攀登峰顶时可使的力量又是这么小。也许只是发疯了才再次攀登。可是我怎能摆脱这种诱惑呢?”

In 1920 when Francis Younghusband, the President of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS),

first put forward the idea of supporting an expedition to Everest, the mountain was still a

mystery. At 8 848 meters Everest was almost 1 500 meters higher than anyone had

previously climbed. There was even doubt as to whether it was possible to breathe at such

altitude. At the time no one had been within 65 kilometers of the mountain, which could only

be approached through the unknown kingdoms of Nepal or China's Tibet.

1920年皇家地理学会主席弗兰西斯·扬哈斯本首次提出支持珠峰探险的想法时，人们对这座山 还一无所知。高达8848米的珠峰比当时人类攀登过的最高峰还高出1500米。人们甚至怀疑，在这样的高度有没有可能呼吸。那时，还没有人到过珠峰 周围65公里的范围，只能从人们不太熟悉的尼泊尔王国或中国的西藏走近这座高山。

With the North and South Poles already discovered, Younghusband had his sights set on the

"third pole", setting up the joint RGS/Alpine Club, Mount Everest Committee. "The

accomplishment of such a feat will elevate the human spirit and will give man, especially us

geographers, a feeling that we are acquiring a true mastery of our surroundings. This is the

incalculable good which the ascent of Mount Everest will confer," he said.

随着人们发现了北极与南极，扬哈斯本把他的目光投向“第三极”，设立联合皇家地理学会/登山俱乐部下属的珠穆朗玛峰委员会。“这次壮举的完成将振奋人类精神，也让人类，尤其是我们地理学家感到，我们正在成为我们这个环境真正的主人。登上珠穆朗玛峰所产生的 效益是难以估量的，”扬哈斯本说道。

High Hopes 厚望

George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had set out from Camp VI on 8 June 1924, attempting to

become the first men to set foot on the summit. They never returned. Today, with more than

550 mountaineers from 20 countries having reached the summit, the mystery has shifted

away from Everest the mountain, towards Mallory the man. In March 1999, 75 years after

Mallory's death on the mountain, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition set out for

Everest, not because it was there, but because he was. Leader of the 1999 expedition Eric

Simonson and his team were hoping to discover whether or not the two men achieved their

goal before they died.

乔治·马罗礼与安德鲁·欧文于1924年6月8日从六号营地出发，试图成为首次登上珠峰的人。可他们再也没有回来。时至今日，已有20个国家五百五十多名登山运动员登顶成功。谜团也就从珠峰这座山转向马罗礼这个人了。1999年3月，在马罗礼罹难后的第75年，马罗里—欧文研究探险队向珠峰进发，不是因为珠峰在那里，而是因为他在那里。1999年探险队长埃里克·西门松及其队员希望发现这两人死之前是否成功登顶。

They had only a few clues to go on. In 1933 an ice axe, thought to be Irvine's, had been found

on the route, and in 1975, the body of a climber was discovered nearby by a Chinese climber

who described it as being an "old English dead" on account of the vintage clothes the body still

wore. However, the identity of the dead climber has never been confirmed. Simonson's team

expected to relocate the body during their high level search. They anticipated it to be Irvine,

the inexperienced Oxford graduate who had possibly fallen, dropping his ice axe on the icy

slabs of Everest's North Face. Mallory's fate was unknown.

他们只有几条探寻的线索。1933年，在登山线路上找到被认为是欧文使用的一把冰斧。1975年，一名中国登山运动员在附近发现一具登山者的尸体，将其描述为“一位年长的英国死者”，因为尸体穿的是老式衣服。然而，这位死去的登山者的身份从未得到确认。西门松的探险队期望在高地再 次找到那具尸体。他们认为会是欧文，这位经验不足的牛津毕业生可能是从悬崖上坠落的，将冰斧掉在珠峰北坡的冰层上。马罗礼的下落则不清楚。

Searching amongst the snow gullies and scouring ledges at 8 320 meters, Simonson's team

discovered a body, the skin bleached porcelain white by the sun. It was lying face down, head

and arms frozen into the earth. Only the collars of the tattered clothes were intact and on one

was uncovered a manufacturer's label, still legible despite years of vicious assaults by ice and

wind. Beneath this was another label, which they could all easily read. In simple carefully

stitched letters was written: G Mallory. Mallory's name on the clothes so surprised the search

party their first thought was to wonder why Irvine had been wearing his climbing partner's

shirt. The discovery of Mallory's body prompted admiration of expedition search member,

Jake Norton. "As a climber, to know what Mallory did was phenomenal. He was a powerful

tough guy, who fought till the end," he told reporters.

在8320米的雪沟与冰棱间搜寻时，西门松小组人员发现了一具尸体，太阳把他的皮肤 晒成瓷白色。尸体的脸部朝下，头与双臂与地面冻成一块。破碎不堪的衣服只有领子完好无损。其中一个领子上发现制造厂商的标签。虽经数十年的风霜冰雪严酷吹打，标签上的字仍清晰可辨。在这块标签下还有另一块标签，队员们很容易辨出上面的字。简单而细心缝制的字母为：G. Mallory。衣服上的马罗礼的名字令搜寻小组感到十分惊讶，他们的第一个反应就是猜测欧文为何穿着他登山伙伴的衬衫？发现了马罗礼尸体后，探险队

员杰克·诺顿对其产生了无比的敬意。“作为一名登山者，了解马罗礼所做的事情意义重大。他是一位意志极为坚强的人，战斗到最后一息，”诺顿跟记者这样说道。

During the early decades of the twentieth century, it was this strength, tenacity and love of

adventure which had established Mallory as a leading figure in the close-knit climbing world.

He was an obvious choice for the Mount Everest Committee as part of the first reconnaissance

expedition in 1921. For Mallory this was the opportunity of a lifetime. It was a challenge, but

that only increased its appeal, for as he once said: " To refuse the adventure is to run the risk

of drying up like a pea in its shell."

二十世纪前几十年时间里，力量、坚韧不拔与富于冒险的精神使马罗礼在组织严密的登山界成为一名出类

拔萃的人。1921年他被珠穆朗玛峰委员会一眼相中，成为第一个珠峰探险队的成员。对于马罗礼来说，这是一生一次的机会。这次攀登珠峰是一次挑战，但挑战更提高了它的吸引力，因为正如马罗礼曾经说过的那样，“拒绝这次冒险机会等于让自已庸庸碌碌地渡过一生。”

By 1924, after two exhausting and unsuccessful attempts to the mountain on expeditions in

1921 and 1922, his early enthusiasm began to wane. He was now 38 years old. A family man

with three children, he had just begun a teaching job at Cambridge. Yet, he couldn't resist

one final attempt to complete a task he had started. Meeting Irvine, recommended by Noel

Odell, the expedition's geologist, buoyed him up for the challenge. Although Irvine was young

with no track record as a climber, he was strong, resourceful and good-natured. The

expedition "superman", they called him. Mallory had warmed to him immediately, describing

him as "a fine fellow", who should, "prove a splendid companion on the mountain."

到了1924年，经过1921年与1922年两次使人精疲力竭的失败尝试后，马罗礼早期的热情开始减退。他已38岁。作为有三个孩子的一家之主，他开始在剑桥大学执教。然而他无法抵挡作最后一试的诱惑，以完成他已开始的事业。他会见了探险队地质学家诺尔·奥德尔推荐的欧文，这重新唤起他应对挑战的干劲。虽然欧文年轻，还没有登山记录，但他体魄强壮，主意又多，而且性格随和。在探险队里，队员们称他为“超人”。马罗礼马上给他鼓劲，称他为“好汉”，会是“登山中一个出色的伙伴。”

Before departing for the 1924 expedition Mallory had confided in a friend that it would be,

"more of war than an adventure", and that he was prepared for a siege on the summit. Two

attempts were to be made, one with oxygen and one without but Everest repelled both

attempts. Mallory's climbing teams were defeated through lack of oxygen and exhaustion. He

refused to give up and was determined to risk one last try. Only Odell and Irvine were in a fit

state to partner him. For Mallory it was a simple choice. He threw his lot in with Irvine and the

pair set off on their fatal summit bid.

1924年的探险出发前，马罗礼私下跟一位朋友说，这次探险“与其说是一场冒险不如说是一场战争，”而他做好在山顶遭受灾难来袭的准备。他们打算做两种尝试：一种是带氧，另一种不带氧气。但是珠峰对这两种尝试均未买账。由于缺氧和体力衰竭，马罗礼的登山队失败，但他毫不气馁，决心冒险做最后一搏。只有奥德尔与欧文身体状况尚好，可以陪着他。对于马罗礼来说，选择很简单。于是他决心与欧文共命运，俩人踏上登顶的不归路。

The day after Mallory and Irvine departed for the summit, Odell saw them for the last time

from a crag at 7 925 meters. A sudden clearing above him unveiled the whole summit ridge.

On a snow slope, clinging to the steep North Face, he noticed, first Mallory, then Irvine

approach a broad rock step. As he stood, his eyes tracking them against the mosaic of rock

and snow, the weather closed in again, clouding their fate for the next 75 years.

马罗礼与欧文出发登顶的第二天，奥德尔最后一次看见他们是在海拔7925米的险崖处。他头顶上突然现出一片晴朗，整座山脊一览无余。紧靠着陡峭的北坡的雪坡上，他先看到马罗礼，然后看见欧文到了一块宽阔的岩石阶上。他站在那里，双眼紧紧盯住岩石与雪地交织地带的俩人，云气再次降临下来，将他们的命运一盖就是75年。

Frozen to the Core 寒冻到了极致

In finding Mallory's body, Simonson's team had helped to come to a theory of how he had

died. Prior to the recent expedition it was thought that Mallory and Irvine had been climbing

at 8 535 meters, and could have either fallen or simply laid down exhausted in the snow to die.

But after seeing the body, Norton is sure they were climbing tied together when Mallory fell.

"There was a rope wrapped round his waist. You could see black and blues on him, he

probably had internal bleeding. He slid down the North Face digging into the snow or gravel,

crossed his legs in pain and died a few moments later."

西门松探险小组发现了马罗礼的尸体之后， 帮助得出了关于他死因的解释。在这次探险之前，人们认为马罗礼与欧文攀到8535米的地方时，他们要么翻下了山崖，要么是体力不支，躺倒在雪地上死去。但检验了尸体后，诺顿确信马罗礼坠落时，他们俩正在一块攀登。“一条绳子绕在他的腰间，身上青一块、紫一块的，他大概内出血。他在用冰镐往雪地或砾石上钉眼时从北坡滑落，双腿痛苦得蜷在一起，不久便死去。”

Other more significant questions remain. Despite the initial find of the body, Everest was

reluctant to give away too many more clues. The team failed to find the camera, lent to

Mallory by his climbing partner Howard Somervell, the existence of which may prove whether

or not the pair made it to the top. However, searching for needles in a hostile, windscorched

haystack of rock and ice is a perilous business. Between 8 230 meters and the summit,

Simonson's team counted 17 other bodies, besides Mallory's. In the face of such danger the

expedition's fascination with the man, must be almost as great as the man's own fascination

with the mountain.

还有更重要的问题依旧末解。除了最初发现的尸体，珠峰不愿提供更多的线索。探险小组没有找到马罗礼的另一位登山伙伴霍华德·萨默维尔借给他的相机。若是找到了相机，就有可能证明这两人是否成功地登上了峰顶。然而，搜寻这部相机无异于在崖石与冰雪构成的狂风怒吼的海洋里寻找一根针，危险太大了。在8230米与峰顶之间，西门松小组共找到除马罗礼以外的另外17具尸体。在这么危险的情况下，探险队员们在寻找这个人时表现出来的执着，一定与这个人对珠峰的执着一样强烈。

Macabre though Simonson's quest is, it is not unique. In the autumn of 1984 the face of John

Torrington appeared in national newspapers. What was unusual about this was that

Torrington had been dead for 138 years, buried under 1.8 meters of Arctic permafrost.

Torrington had been chief Stoker aboard the Erebus which along with the Terror sailed with

Sir John Franklin during his expedition to chart the Northwest Passage. The expedition had

set sail from the Thames River on 19 May 1845, carrying with it the hope of the nation for the

discovery of a navigable route through the Arctic into the Pacific Ocean.

虽然西门松一行人的探寻活动看起来相当恐怖，但并非是独一无二的。1984年的秋天，约翰·托林通的头像出现在全国的报纸上。非同寻常的是，托林通早在一百三十八年前就死了，葬于1.8米深的北极永久冰

土下面。托林通是“埃里伯斯”号船上的仓库管理主管，在他赴西北航道探险时，同船前往的有约翰.富兰克林爵士，另有“恐怖”号船同行。探险队于1845年5月19日从泰晤士河起航，带着举国上下的希望，去发现一条从北极到太平洋的航道。

Neither ship was ever seen again and 129 men lost their lives in a polar enigma which

mesmerized Victorian Britain. The conclusion of the 25 major search expeditions, which set

out to solve the puzzle was that Franklin's men had succumbed to scurry, starvation, stress

and hypothermia. In 1981 American anthropologist Owen Beattie, set out to apply modern

scientific and forensic technique to any remaining evidence of Franklin's expedition. Over the

following five years Beattie scoured Franklin's expedition sites for clues. His most grisly task

was the exhumation and autopsies of three expedition members, one of whom was John

Torrington.

此后这两艘船再也没有踪影。船上129名船员全部丧生神秘莫测的极地，这使维多利亚时代的英国人百思不得其解。为了解开这一迷团，人们先后组织了25次大规模的搜寻行动。最后得 出的结论是：富兰克林一行人死于阵雪、饥饿、心理压力与体温过低等方面的原因。1981年英国人类学家奥温·比泰开始用现代科学与法医技术检验富兰克林探险队存留下来的遗迹。此后五年的时间里，比泰走遍了富兰克林探险队所经过的地方寻找线索。他那最令人毛骨悚然的工作，是把三名探险队员的尸体挖出来并进行尸体解剖 ，其中一名是约翰·托林通。

For men buried in the year that the Corn Laws were repealed, they were in a remarkable state

of preservation. Being kept in the frozen earth since 1846 had prevented major outward

appearances of decay. Torrington looked very much as he has done in life; skin was still on his

face, he had kept his teeth, eyes and most of his hair. Samples of his body tissue looked

almost recent in origin and certain bacterial stains collected had even survived the big freeze.

作为刚好是废除谷物法的那年被埋的尸体，它们保存得非常完好。1846年起尸体一直埋于冻土之中，外表主要部分没有腐化。托林通看上去跟生前差不多。脸上皮肤完好；牙齿、眼睛与大部分头发尚存。他体内组织的标本看上去跟刚死去的人差不多，而且某些细菌感染处历经严寒后依然存在。

The autopsy showed Torrington was an ill man when he died. His lungs were blackened with

atmospheric pollutants and he showed evidence of tuberculosis. There were also signs that

the ultimate cause of death had been pneumonia. However, what struck Beattie most were

abnormally high levels of lead found in samples of hair, indicating acute lead poisoning. Lead

poisoning can lead to weakness, fatigue, stupor, neurosis and erratic behavior, far from ideal

conditions for surviving long exposure to the harsh Arctic environment. Beattie confirmed the

elevated lead levels in John Hartnell and William Braine, the two other exhumed bodies. In

1845, tinned preserved food was a modern invention, tin cans having been only patented in

England in 1811. They were made from a wrought-iron sheet bent into a cylinder and joined

along the seam with solder containing more than 90 percent lead. Franklin's expedition

carried nearly 8 000 lead-soldered tins containing meat, soup, vegetables and pemmican －

a pressed cake of shredded dry meat. Beattie's examination of tins collected near the site of

the graves confirmed the high levels of lead in the solder and also that the side seams of some

tins were incomplete, increasing the risk of contamination.

尸体解剖表明托林通死的时候正患病。他的两片肺叶由于空气污染物侵蚀变黑，并表现出肺结核症状。还有迹象说明最终导致他死亡的原因是肺炎。然而，最令比泰吃惊的是在头发样本中发现高出正常很多的铅

含量，这说明是急性铅中毒。铅中毒会导致虚弱、乏力、精神愰惚、神经机能症及行为怪诞，远远达不到长期在恶劣的北极环境中生存的理想身体状况。 比泰在另两具挖掘出的尸体即约翰·哈特内尔与威廉·布莱恩体内也也发现铅含量过高。在1845年，罐头食品是一项现代发明。锡罐于1811年在英国取得专利权。这种罐是由精制铁 皮卷成圆筒而成，切口的缝由铅含量达90%以上的焊锡来焊接。富兰克林探险队则带有近八千个装有肉、汤、蔬菜，以及压缩肉糜饼（一种用干肉捣碎压制而成的饼）的含铅焊锡封口的罐头。比泰检验了墓地附近采到的铁罐，证实焊锡铅含量较高，并且一些罐头边缝也没完全焊牢，这就增加了食物受到污染的危险性。

Beattie's gruesome raising of Franklin's death had answered the age-old question of what

happened to the ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition. Weakened by the physical and

neurological side effects of lead poisoning, the men would have not been physically able to

fight off the diseases that were the eventual cause of death.

比泰揭示了导致富兰克林死亡的可怕原因，回答了许多困扰人们的问题，即什么原因使西北路线探险遭到如此厄运。由于铅中毒所产生的身体与精神上的副作用，人们的体质受到削弱，无力与疾病作斗争而最终导致死亡。

The Missing Link 缺省的一环

Simonson's expedition returned from Everest at the start of June 1999. He has similar hopes

of answering the questions surrounding the last hours of Mallory and Irvine. Although

Mallory's camera was not recovered, various other artifacts were unearthed, including an

oxygen bottle, Mallory's watch, an altimeter, glacier goggles, a pocketknife and several

letters from family members. An American documentary team, who traveled with the

expedition, is already planning to run a series of forensic examination on the artifacts, similar

to those of Beattie. They hope to piece together the many possible scenarios of Mallory and

Irvine's last day. Beattie's solution to the Franklin mystery took four expeditions and

Simonson is not expecting miracles. Already he is looking ahead to the next year and

planning a second expedition. Next time he wants to look for Irvine's body and the elusive

camera, which he still believes is on the mountain. But for the present, the mystery of both

the man and the mountain live on.

西门松探险队1999年6月初从珠峰归来。他同样希望能解答马罗礼与欧文最后几小时出现的问题。虽然没有找到马罗礼的照相机，但发现了其他的物件，其中有马罗礼的手表、冰原用护目镜、一把小刀及几封家信。跟随探险队的一个美国记录片拍摄小组已准备对这些物件做一系列类似比泰的法医检查。他们希望将马罗礼与欧文最后一天生活片断汇集成片。比泰为解开富兰克林之迷作过四次探险，因此西门松并没有期待出现奇迹。他已筹划在明年进行第二次探险。下一次，他要寻找欧文的尸体及那只尚未找到的相机。他相信相机还在山上。可眼下，人与山的迷团尚待破解。

本文标签： 珠峰探险队尸体