TED演讲 第57期:极点往返-我生命中最艰苦的105天(2)

 Scott and his final team of five arrived at the South Pole in 1912 January to find they had been beaten to it by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen, 1912年一月，斯科特和他的五人小分队 到达了南极点。但不巧，他们发现由挪威人罗尔德阿蒙森领头的小队，

who rode on dogsled.  已然领先。

Scott's team ended up on foot.  斯科特及队员们徒步前行。

And for more than a century this journey has remained unfinished.  然而，已经过了一个世纪， 漫漫旅途无果而终。

Scott's team of five died on the return journey.  斯科特的五人小分队， 死于归途。

And for the last decade,  过去十年来，

I've been asking myself why that is.  我不断自问：为何？

How come this has remained the high-water mark?  何以它仍为人类巅?

Scott's team covered 1,600 miles on foot.  斯科特的团队共计步行 1600英里。

No one's come close to that ever since.  前无古人，后无来者。

So this is the high-water mark of human endurance,  这是人类耐力顶峰，

human endeavor, human athletic¹ achievement in arguably the harshest climate on Earth.  人们共同努力的结晶。 人类极限运动的巅峰。况且，四目所及，天寒地坼。

It was as if the marathon record has remained unbroken since 1912.  就好比马拉松记录，自1912年以来都不曾被打破似的。

And of course some strange and predictable combination of curiosity,  好奇，混杂着第六感，随风而来。

stubbornness, and probably hubris² led me to thinking I might be the man to try to finish the job.  固执，可能还有些许傲慢，让我跃跃欲试。

Unlike Scott's expedition, there were just two of us,  不同于斯科特， 我们相伴二人行。

and we set off from the coast of Antarctica in October last year,  自去年10月，我们从南极洲海岸出发，

dragging everything ourselves,  荷重前行。

a process Scott called "man-hauling."  即斯科特所谓的“人拖”。

When I say it was like walking from here to San Francisco and back,  我刚才说，这就像 从这儿到旧金山的往返路程。

I actually mean it was like dragging something that weighs a shade more than the heaviest ever NFL player. 实际上，还要再拖个 比美式橄榄球运动员稍微重点的东西。

Our sledges³ weighed 200 kilos,  我们的行李大约200公斤重，

or 440 pounds each at the start,  或者说，刚开始，每人负荷是440磅。

the same weights that the weakest of Scott's ponies⁴ pulled.  这是斯科特团队中最瘦弱 的种马拉的货物重量。

Early on, we averaged 0.5 miles per hour.  起先，我们平均一小时行进0.5英里，

Perhaps the reason no one had attempted this journey until now,  也许， 超过一世纪，

in more than a century,  人们惶而畏之因，

was that no one had been quite stupid enough to try.  是真没有这么傻的人会尝试啊。

And while I can't claim we were exploring in the genuine Edwardian sense of the word a we weren't naming any mountains  虽然我们不能像爱德华时代的探索家那样,我们不是在为山命名，

or mapping any uncharted valleys a I think we were stepping into uncharted territory in a human sense.  或是标出任何未知的峡谷,但我想我们踏入了一种人性的新区域。

Certainly, if in the future we learn there is an area of the human brain that lights up when one curses oneself, 诚然，如果未来，我们得知人在赌咒时大脑一块区域会被激活，

I won't be at all surprised.  对我来说，这没什么好惊讶的。

You've heard that the average American spends 90 percent of their time indoors.  你们己经知道美国人平均花90%在室内，

We didn't go indoors for nearly four months.  我们会几乎四个月不出门。

We didn't see a sunset either.  我们当然也看不到日落。

It was 24-hour daylight.  极点是24小时极昼，

Living conditions were quite spartan⁵.  生存条件恶劣。

I changed my underwear three times in 105 days and Tarka and I shared 30 square feet on the canvas. 在105天里，我换了3次内衣我和队友共享30平方英尺的空间。

Though we did have some technology that Scott could never have imagined.  确实我们有斯科特团队想都想不到的技术。

And we blogged live every evening from the tent via a laptop and a custom-made satellite transmitter,  而且我们每晚都会通过笔记本电脑及简易制作的卫星信号转换器发博客来证明我们还活着。

all of which were solar-powered: 一切都是太阳能驱动的，

we had a flexible photovoltaic panel over the tent.  在帐篷上，我们有可灵活移动的摄像头。

And the writing was important to me.  写下经历对我来说也很重要。

As a kid, I was inspired by the literature of adventure and exploration,  孩提时，我被冒险和探索小说鼓舞了，

and I think we've all seen here this week the importance and the power of storytelling. 我想，这周，我们已经看到叙述故事的重要性及其力量。

So we had some 21st-century gear,  综上所述，我们有21世纪的现代化设备，

but the reality is that the challenges that Scott faced were the same that we faced:  但现实是，斯科特团队面临的挑战于我们而言，同样存在：

those of the weather and of what Scott called glide,the amount of friction⁶ between the sledges and the snow.   天气恶劣，以及雪橇及雪之间大量的摩擦产生的 斯科特称之为“滑动”的作用力。

The lowest wind chill we experienced was in the-70s,  风力最低也是70mps，

and we had zero visibility, what's called white-out,  伸手不见五指 这就是所谓的白茫茫一片。

for much of our journey.  我们旅程大多数时候都是这样的。

We traveled up and down one of the largest and most dangerous glaciers⁷ in the world, the Beardmore glacier⁸. 我们穿行在世界上最大，也是最危险的冰川之一，比尔德莫尔冰川之上。

It's 110 miles long; most of its surface is what's called blue ice.  它长达110米，表层大部分由一种叫 蓝冰的物质覆盖。

You can see it's a beautiful, shimmering⁹ steel-hard blue surface covered with thousands and thousands of crevasses¹⁰, 你们可以看到， 它是美丽却难以使车轮前行的光滑冰川它由数以千计的溶洞覆盖，

these deep cracks in the glacial ice up to 200 feet deep.  最深处可达200英尺深。

Planes can't land here,  飞机无法着陆，

so we were at the most risk,  所以我们的生命岌岌可危，

technically¹¹, when we had the slimmest chance of being rescued.  我们生还的几率近乎为零。

We got to the South Pole after 61 days on foot,  除了有一天因为天气状况太糟糕而停止行进

with one day off for bad weather, and I'm sad to say, it was something of an anticlimax¹².  再去南极点的路上 在徒步走了61天后,我要说，这确实难于上青天。

There's a permanent American base,  这里有个永久的美国基地，

the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at the South Pole.  在南极点的阿姆森-斯科特极点考察站。

1 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

2 hubris   

n.傲慢，骄傲

参考例句：

• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。
• The very hubris of French claims alarmed the other powers.法国贪婪的胃口使其他大国惊恐不安。

3 sledges   

n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载

参考例句：

• Sledges run well over frozen snow. 雪橇在冻硬了的雪上顺利滑行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They used picks and sledges to break the rocks. 他们用[镐和撬]来打碎这些岩石。 来自互联网

4 ponies   

矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑

参考例句：

• They drove the ponies into a corral. 他们把矮种马赶进了畜栏。
• She has a mania for ponies. 她特别喜欢小马。

5 spartan   

adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人

参考例句：

• Their spartan lifestyle prohibits a fridge or a phone.他们不使用冰箱和电话，过着简朴的生活。
• The rooms were spartan and undecorated.房间没有装饰，极为简陋。

6 friction   

n.摩擦，摩擦力

参考例句：

• When Joan returned to work,the friction between them increased.琼回来工作后，他们之间的摩擦加剧了。
• Friction acts on moving bodies and brings them to a stop.摩擦力作用于运动着的物体，并使其停止。

7 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

8 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

9 shimmering   

v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The sea was shimmering in the sunlight. 阳光下海水波光闪烁。
• The colours are delicate and shimmering. 这些颜色柔和且闪烁微光。 来自辞典例句

10 crevasses   

n.破口，崩溃处，裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Splays are commonly formed by currents from crevasses in levees. 嗽叭形堆积通常由堤防决口的洪流所形成。 来自辞典例句
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses. 冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。 来自辞典例句

11 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

12 anticlimax   

n.令人扫兴的结局；突降法

参考例句：

• Travelling in Europe was something of an anticlimax after the years he'd spent in Africa.他在非洲生活了多年，到欧洲旅行真是有点太平淡了。
• It was an anticlimax when they abandoned the game.他们放弃比赛，真是扫兴。