英国新闻听力 攀岩者征服酋长岩创造历史（在线收听）

“The last few days have been some of the most memorable climbing days of my life.” A Tweet just a few days ago from the rock climber Tommy Caldwell. Well, today you can replace the word “memorable” with “historic”. That’s because he along with another climber Kevin has made history by conquering El Capitan, the legendary 900-metre high sheer rock face in California’s Yosemite National Park.

It’s easier to look up the 900-meter cliff lying down than it is standing up. Only through a huge zoom lens could their friends and family below watch their steady progress to the top. Then finally, the climbersreach the summit. The two men embraced facing the valley with arms outstretched as they acknowledged the cheers of support from below.

We’ve enjoyed the process so much.

And up on the summit, their partners were there waiting for them. It’s taken seven years of preparation, gradually learning the best way to climb the hardest sections and now finally completing the whole free climb in one go, with ropes used only for safety.

The conditions on the cliff face were tough. We have to sleep in tents suspended from the rock through bitter cold winds.

There is this crazy arctic wind storm happening today.

Kevin almost didn’t make it. He battled against the hardest section, flakes of rock shredding his fingers.He had to wait days for his hands to heal before continuing and almost gave up.

And I’m not gonna lie. It’s pretty devastated. And you know, thoughts crossed my mind that I should justthrow in the towel and support Tommy to the top because he’s through all the hard parts. But then I thought about how much time put into this so far. And it’s been six years and hundreds of days and I really wanna do the thing.

After a week of trying, he finally made it. Once through that, there was no looking back. From there it was slow but steady to the top. A former climber put their achievement in context.

Nobody spent eight years trying to do one climb. Nobody spends 19 days on a continuous push trying to do free climb. Nobody, I’ve ever heard of this, has tried a two-meter section eleven times over three different attempts.

President Obama even Tweeted his congratulations. “You remind us anything is possible”, he said. On the summit, the celebrations continued as the sun began to set. Getting down, well, that was far easier.

“这是我攀岩生涯中最值得纪念的几天”攀岩者托米?考德威尔几天前发表了这条推文。今天，你可以把“值得纪念”这个词换成“具有历史意义”。因为他和另一名登山者凯文一起征服了酋长岩，创造了历史。酋长岩位于加利福尼亚州的约塞米特蒂国家公园，高达900米，岩壁峻峭。

若要仰观这900米的绝壁，躺着看比站着看要轻松些。他们的亲朋好友只有通过大的变焦镜头才能看到他们向岩顶稳步前进的身影。最终，两名攀岩者成功登顶了。他们相互拥抱，然后张开双臂面向山谷，接受来自山下的欢呼和支持。

我们特别享受这个过程。

同伴们正在峰顶等待他们。经过七年的准备，逐渐摸索穿过最困难岩段的方法，最终一举完成整个徒手攀爬的过程，期间仅用到了绳子以确保安全。

岩壁的状况很恶劣。我们得睡在从岩石上吊下来的帐篷里，外面寒风凛冽。

今天，北极风暴正在肆虐。

凯文差一点撑不下去。他在攀爬最难克服的岩段时，被岩片割破了手指，所以不得不等过几天手伤痊愈后再继续攀爬，他差一点就放弃了。

我不骗你，当时真的是不行了。我想，干脆不爬了，协助托米吧，因为他已经克服了最困难的部分。但我转念一想，都投入这么多时间了，6年，几百天，我真的想做这个。

经过一周的努力，他挺了过去，此后就再也没有退缩，向岩顶缓慢而稳步地攀爬。一名前登山者这样描述他们的成就。

没有人为了一次攀岩花八年时间准备。没有人用19天时间一举完成徒手攀爬。我从来没有听说过有人为了征服两米的岩段，进行三次尝试，11次攀爬。

就连奥巴马总统也发推文祝贺，他说：“你们让我们再一次意识到，一切皆有可能。”天就要黑了，而岩顶的庆祝仍在继续，至于下去嘛，就容易多了。