​前文参看上篇微博——中国的阿尔卑斯式首攀

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So you have the young hotshot Marcos Costa and the experienced, serious academic Bruce Normand, separated by couple decades. Both in China, both pursuing ambitious goals in uncharted corners of the map — “where there be dragons,” as such realms would have been known centuries ago—the story of how the two connected, while not outlandish, has far more to do with serendipity than good planning. “I met Bruce at a trade show,” Costa says. “A friend introduced us. We hit it off right away.” 

随后，年轻的高手马科斯·科斯塔和经验丰富的严谨学者布鲁斯·诺曼德数十年天各一方后相遇了。两人都在中国，这片土地“是龙的故乡”，几个世纪之前人们就熟悉了这片疆域，不过两人都怀有探寻版图上未知角落的远大目标，他们的相遇并不离奇，不过运气远远多于良好的规划。“我是在一个贸易展会上遇到布鲁斯的。”科斯塔谈到。“一个朋友把我们介绍到一起，我们立刻一见如故。”

Normand is all too aware that he's the mentor of in his relationships guys like Costa. But the age difference didn't prevent them from bonding and finding common ground. “We're both climbers, you know? So that’s what we talked about. We talked about climbing and then just start getting along. Then there’s gear to talk about, weather. Plenty of stuff.”

诺曼德非常清楚，自己是科斯塔这样的伙伴的导师。好在年龄的差异并没有阻碍他们建立密切的关系，也没有阻碍他们发现共同点。“我们两人都是登山者，是吧？所以，这也是我们的话题。我们讨论了一些登山的问题，之后，很快就相处甚欢了。再后来，我们还谈到了装备，谈到了天气，聊了很多东西。”

When they were introduced, Normand was at that very moment in the market for a partner. That year, 2013, was one of the wettest and coldest in Beijing history. There were “huge ice pillars where no one had ever seen ice before,” Normand remembers. One particular flow in a nearby valley was on Normand’s mind.

在他们相遇的时候，诺曼德正在圈子里寻找伙伴。那是2013年，也是北京历史上最多雨同时也最寒冷的一年。诺曼德回忆说：“在人们从没见过冰的地方居然出现了一些巨大的冰柱。”诺曼德想到了附近山谷中一条独特的溪流。

He had tried the pillar earlier in the season to no avail. Upon meeting Marcos, he quickly recruited the Brazilian to join him on a second attempt. “I gave him an extra layer of clothes and off we went. And we climbed it first go.”And then, well, they went their separate ways.

他在那个季节曾尝试过攀登那个冰柱，但无功而返。遇到马科斯后，他很快就邀请这个巴西人和他一起再度尝试。“我给了他一些厚衣服，之后，我们就出发了。我们首次尝试就成功了。”其后，他们就此分手了。

Until 2014. Normand says that, until they climbed together, “Marcos didn’t know much about climbing mountains.” Costa is even more candid: “Before teaming up with Bruce I had no experience whatsoever with that kind of climbing.” That all changed quickly as they set out on a first ascent mission in western Sichuan.

直到2014年他们才再次汇合。诺曼德谈到，到他们一起攀登的时候，“马科斯对登山还没有多少了解。”科斯塔则更加坦率：“在与布鲁斯结对之前，我对那种登山真的没有什么经验。”不过当他们前往四川西部开始冲击首攀目标时，很快，一切都变了。

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The first peak they climbed to launch their string of ascents was Mt. Yala (also known as Haizi Shan). Perched above the Wild Western Tibetan town of Tagong, Yala rises out of the surrounding grasslands like the Emerald City out of the plains of Oz (though not green, of course).  Malcolm Bass and Pat Deavoll completed the first ascent in 2006, while Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff likely made the second ascent later in 2006. (Fowler and Boskoff died later on that same expedition to China while climbing Mount Genyen.)

他们第一次征服的是雅拉雪山（Mt. Yala）（又称为海子山），就此开始呈送成功登顶的一连串山峰名单。雅拉雪山坐落在狂野西部的小镇塔公，从周边的草原中横空出世，就像绿宝石城（Emerald City）（童话《绿野仙踪》中的仙境——译者注）从奥兹（Oz）平原上拔地而起一样（当然，雅拉雪山并不是绿色的。）。马尔科姆·巴斯（Malcolm Bass）和帕特·迪沃尔（Pat Deavoll）2006年完成首攀，同一年晚些时候，查理·福勒（Charlie Fowler）和克里斯汀·博斯科夫（Christine Boskoff）也成功登顶。（后来，福勒和博斯科夫在这次中国探险活动中攀登格聂峰（Mount Genyen）时不幸遇难。）

Normand and Costa climbed a new route on the mountain’s West Face, following an ice gully with some exposed rock towards the top. (Their third team member, Garrett Bradley, started the climb with them, but bivied at the top of a couloir halfway up due to altitude sickness.) “There were a couple of technical pitches on Yala but they weren’t very high angle,” Normand explains. Navigating exposed rock after the ice pitches, they reached the summit feeling remarkably fresh. Their ascent, from base camp to summit, took a mere 12 hours. They ended up spending the night near the summit, at around 5,600 meters, for strategic purposes. “We wanted to acclimate for the next target, you know?” Costa says.

诺曼德和科斯塔在这座山的西壁攀爬了一条新线路，沿着一条两边裸露的岩石直达山顶的冰壑登顶。（他们的第三位队员盖瑞特·布拉德利（Garrett Bradley）起初与他们一起出发，但因为高原反应，在半路上一条峡谷的高处露营。）“雅拉雪山有几个技术要求较高的单段，不过仰角并不很大。”诺曼德解释说。攀登过多个冰封的单段之后，他们沿着裸露的岩石登上顶峰颇感神清气爽。从大本营到顶峰，他们这次攀登只用了12个小时。最后，他们在顶峰附近过夜，他们选择在海拔5,600米的地方过夜有其战略意义。“你知道吗？我们是想为了下一个目标适应环境。”科斯塔谈到。

For Costa, the efficiency and speed with which they moved, going as light and fast as possible, was refreshing. He had made a half-hearted, aborted attempt on Yala with a Chinese climber earlier the same year. They had gone “very heavy,” as he put it, and didn’t get very far.  Climbing the peak with Normand was an eye opener.

对科斯塔来说，他们攀登的效率和速度，尽可能减少辎重而且尽可能快速地攀登，让他耳目一新。同一年的早些时候，他曾与一位中国登山者一道半心半意地尝试冲击雅拉雪山，但中途铩羽而归。正如他谈到的，他们带着“非常重”的东西，所以，根本就没走多远。与诺曼德一起攀登这座山峰让他大开眼界。

The partnership, similar to Normand and Dempster’s, seemed an excellent fit, and proved so on that first expedition together. “He had all this information and experience,” Costa says of Normand, “and I had this technical climbing background, so it was a good match. He had all of this information on these targets in China, so he’d kind of pick the routes and, if there was something really hard, he’d just send me in front.”

就像诺曼德与邓普斯特一样，科斯塔与诺曼德的伙伴关系看来同样无可挑剔，而且在他们首次一道探险中就得到了证实。“他拥有所有的信息和丰富的经验。”科斯塔在谈到诺曼德时说。“我则有技术攀登的背景，所以，我们是一对完美的搭档。他了解中国那些目的地的所有信息，所以，他会负责选择线路，如果真的碰到了难题，他会让我先上。”

During the remainder of that first trip, they also made first ascents of Karawani I (5,992 m) (which Normand was turned onto by Tom Nakamura’s essay “Sichuan’s Most Outstanding Unclimbed Peaks”), and Unnamed Peak Ca 6,460 m in the Minya Konka massif.

在首次探险之旅剩下的时间里，他们还完成了Karawani I峰（海拔5,992米）的首攀（为此，诺曼德还被日本攀登者中村保（Tom Nakamura）收入了《四川省境内最顶尖的未登山峰》（Sichuan’s Most Outstanding Unclimbed Peaks）一文），以及贡嘎山山系海拔6,460的Unnamed Peak Ca。

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​What with their lengthy combined resumes and heaps of ascents, one might easily assume that the pair have considerable support and infrastructure on their expeditions — teams of Sherpas, a base camp medic, perhaps a team meteorologist, even geodesic dome-like tents the size of small houses. But such assumptions would be mistaken.

考虑到两人经历丰富的履历以及骄人的首攀战绩，人们很容易认为他们两人的历险之旅背后一定有雄厚的支持和完备的基础设施——比如，夏尔巴人团队、大本营的医生，或许还会有一队气象学家随行，甚至会认为他们驻扎在像小房子那么大的圆顶测地帐篷中。但所有这些假设都是错的。

Normand and Costa, while supported by various sponsors, plan and execute their trips in a barebones style, surprisingly primitive given the scope and gravity of their objectives. On each of their expeditions together, they have taken down several mountains each time. It all starts with mobility.

实际上，虽然诺曼德和科斯塔得到了各路赞助商的支持，可用于行程规划和实施的物质资源实在是相当贫乏，考虑到他们目的地的范围和危险性，他们的资源原始得令人惊异。两人每一次协同探险，都会一次攀登几座山峰。他们首先面临的问题就是出行。

“The secret to getting stuff done out there in the middle of winter is having your own wheels,” Normand explains. On their trips in each 2014 and 2015, they rented a small car, piled all of their gear inside, shut the doors, and hit the barren Chinese roads. Normand even took it upon himself to take and pass the Chinese driving test just so that they could operate like this. “It’s purely a theory test though,” he marvels. “No practical exam whatsoever.”

 “在隆冬季节，实现计划的秘密就是要有自己的汽车。”诺曼德解释说。2014年和2015年的每次出行，他们都会租赁一辆小型汽车，把所有的装备都塞进去，之后关上车门，走上中国沉闷无趣的公路。为了这么出行，诺曼德甚至还参加并通过了中国的驾照考试。“不过那仅仅是一次理论考试。”他有些不解地说。“没有实际路考。”

During the portions of the expeditions when Dempster joined them, he would take the front passenger seat, next to Normand behind the wheel – Costa preferred the back. Crammed into one corner of the back row, the rest of the seats piled high with haul bags, Marcos was quite content. “The only place to put the food bag was right on top of Marcos,” Normand says, “So he’d just be sitting there, stuck in the back corner, with this bag sack on top of him, eating chips, spicy peanuts, dried foods. He'd chime up now and then from back there, but he was just munching most of the time.”

在邓普斯特加入他们一道探险时，他会坐在副驾驶的座位上，紧邻坐在方向盘后面的诺曼德——科斯塔更喜欢坐后座。科斯塔挤坐在后座的一角，座位的其他部分高高地叠放着攀岩吊包，不过他还是感到心满意足。“唯一可以放食品包的地方，就是马科斯头上的空间。”诺曼德谈到。“所以，他只能坐在那儿，身体卡在角落里，因为食品包就在他的头上，他会掏出薯片、香辣花生和干制食品吃。他在后面会不时搭话，不过大部分时间都是在大声咀嚼。”

And so, two winters in a row, Normand and Costa careened around Sichuan and south western China, scurrying up some peaks and simply undertaking reconnaissances of others for future trips.

连着两个冬季，诺曼德和科斯塔都在四川和中国西南部奔袭，快速攀登了几座山峰，并为未来的行程进行了一些勘察。

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“Bruce—his idea was we do all the research, find out all the roads, rent a car, drive as close to the mountain as we can, pack a bag, and just go,” Marcos says. “And no one is really doing that now. It can be tricky with permits in China—we don’t even get permits for most of the mountains.”

“布鲁斯的想法是，我们要完成所有的勘察，找到所有的通路，之后租一辆车，开到山脚不能再往前走的地方，最后收拾好东西开始攀登。”马科斯谈到。“不过现在没人这么干了。在中国获得登山许可是很棘手的事情——我们攀登大部分山峰都没有获得许可。”

Normand also researches as much as possible. “He literally knows everything,” before setting out on an expedition, Costa says. “From the geography of the location, to where the winds come from, how much snow the place gets each year, and more. He spends days on Google Earth memorizing the location we are going to climb in.”

此外，诺曼德还会做尽可能充分的研究。“不夸张地说，他无所不知。”科斯塔在一次探险之旅出发之前说道。“从当地的地貌到风向，再到每年的降雪量，等等，他会用几天的时间通过Google Earth熟记我们要攀登的山峰的情况。”

Normand's acute attention to detail, the same conscientious approach he takes to high-level physics, manifests itself as an extreme perfectionism when in the mountains. He tries to do things as efficiently as possible. 

事实证明，诺曼德对细节的注重，也就是他在高水平的物理学研究中采用的小心谨慎的策略，是他们在山中的完美策略。他会让自己的行为尽可能高效。

One time, Bruce, Marcos and Kyle were bivying in a tent on the Tibetan Plateau in -20C weather.  Before cooking dinner, Bruce removed his gloves and held the gas cannister in his bare hands, to warm it up and allow it to burn more efficiently. Marcos remembers, “He accidentally dropped the stove inside the tent and the side caught fire. So did his sleeping bag and Kyles brand new sleeping bag. I think that was the first time I saw him make a mistake. I remember he was so hard on himself for dropping the stove.”

敏感词段落来了。

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“By the time I hung on the rope,” Normand says, “I think Marcos was standing up to his neck in a hole.” So Normand was stuck, just dangling there. Meanwhile, Costa was yelling into the whiteness, “Bruce! Get up! Do something!” Eventually, Normand managed to pull himself through, but both climbers recognize how close a call it really was. “Ya know, that’s the Simon Yates and Joe Simpson scenario… You start thinking, maybe I should cut the rope before both of us fall,” Normand says, alluding to the infamous story of the British alpinists’ harrowing ordeal on Siula Grande, Peru, immortalized in Simpson’s book Touching the Void.

 “当我吊在绳索上的时候，”诺曼德谈到，“我想，马科斯一定是深陷在一个洞里了。”所以，诺曼德动弹不得，只能悬吊在绳索上。与此同时，科斯塔对着白茫茫的雪野大声叫喊：“布鲁斯！使劲爬！动起来！”最后，诺曼德设法把自己拉了上去，不过两位登山者都意识到，他们能脱离险境有多么侥幸。“你知道，那就是西蒙·耶茨和乔·辛普森经历的情景……你忍不住会想，或许，我应该在我们两人一同坠落之前割断绳子。”诺曼德谈到，他说到了英国阿尔卑斯登山者在秘鲁斯拉格兰峰（Siula Grande）悲惨经历的著名故事，那段经历在辛普森的《触及巅峰》（Touching The Void）得以永生。

In hindsight, the entire situation was avoidable, he says. “We should have had Marcos climb a short pitch, just a couple meters past the bulge, put in the most solid anchors he could get, and then belay me up while we could still talk to each other.

他谈到，事后看来，整个情形是可以避免的。“我们应该先让马科斯攀登一小段距离，也就是越过那个凸起几米远，然后，找到一个最坚实的锚点，之后，再保护我攀上去，期间，我们仍能交谈。”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I’m just a fat old sack of potatoes compared to him,” Normand says. “That’s why you climb with people like Marcos!”

 “不过与他相比，我胖得像一袋土豆，这个事实是无法改变的。”诺曼德谈到。“这也是你要和马科斯这样的伙伴一起攀登的原因所在！”

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​Despite the difficulties at the bergschrund, Costa and Normand pulled themselves together and recovered. They inched their way up the final ridge through a whiteout, and tagged the 6,516-meter summit. Their climb was the first recorded ascent of any peak in the Kawagebo Range.

尽管经历了冰河裂缝的困境，不过科斯塔和诺曼德依然振奋精神、继续前行。他们一步步地穿越了一片白茫茫的雪地攀上了山脊的顶点，并在海拔6,516米的顶峰安置了标记。他们的这次攀登是卡瓦格博雪山山脉诸多高峰的第一次成功登顶纪录。

Also on their 2015 expedition, Normand and Costa bagged the first ascent of the north face of Chola II (6,119 m) with Kyle Dempster. Additionally, later in Summer 2015, they mounted an expedition to the Pakistani Karakoram and  attempted routes on both Ogre I and II.

同样是在2015年的探险中，诺曼德和科斯塔与凯尔·邓普斯特一道完成了卓拉（Chola）II（海拔6,119米）的首攀。此外，在后来的2015年夏季，他们动身前往巴基斯坦喀喇昆仑山系探险，试图在“食人魔峰”（Ogre）I和II开辟新线路。

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson’sdeaths on Ogre II in late August/early September 2016, is that Dempster was particularly aware about risk taking, as attested to by his avowal that he would not undertake risk similar to his and Normand’s ascent of Mt. Edgar, nor join Costa and Normand for round two on Cogar Lakpa. In 2015, on their first attempt to climb the Ogre II’s north face, Dempster and Adamson were forced to retreat after Adamson fell and broke his leg. On one of the final rappels, the V-thread gave way and they both tumbled 90 meters to the ground below. They were ok, but shaken. Reflecting on the ordeal afterward, Dempster wrote in the AAJ, “For weeks and months after our accident I beat myself up over my mistake and the complacency that nearly killed both of us. As I ponder the difficult events and situational conditions leading up to the anchor failure, I view them as both important to analyze and also as potential excuses for the inexcusable.”

2016年8月底9月初，凯尔·邓普斯特和斯科特·亚当森在食人魔峰II遇难，他们的遇难最让人悲伤的是，邓普斯特对冒险尤为警觉，这一点已被他的公开表态所证明，他不会再冒他与诺曼德攀登爱德嘉峰那样的风险了，在第二轮冲击Cogar Lakpa时，他也没有和科斯塔和诺曼德并肩前往。2015年，首次尝试攀登食人魔峰II北坡时，因为亚当森跌落并摔断了大腿，邓普斯特和亚当森被迫撤回。在绕绳下降最后阶段的一段，冰洞（V-thread）崩脱，两人均跌落到90米以下的地方。虽然他们安然无恙，但深感恐惧。在事后回忆那次磨难时，邓普斯特在《美国阿尔卑斯山期刊》撰文写道：“我们那次意外几个星期甚至几个月以后，我一直在为自己险些让我们两人丧命的错误和自满深深自责。当我仔细思考当时的困境以及导致锚点失败的情境条件时，我认为，为那个不可宽恕的错误对它们进行分析是至关重要的，同时，它们也是导致那个不可宽恕的错误的潜在理由。”

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图注：2014年2月，Bruce Norman站在贡嘎山区一座海拔6460米的无名峰顶。

Normand and Costa both climbed extensively with Dempster in China and Pakistan. Asked about how Dempster and Adamson’s deaths affect their outlook on risk in the mountains, and alpinism in general, the two have slightly divergent views. “I don’t have a big philosophical answer to questions about risk,” Normand says. The nature of the pursuit requires one to push up to a certain threshold, a fine line, and hopefully not go past it, he reasons. But he has spent years in the mountains. While walking that fine line is an imperfect art, he feels that with him and Costa at least, “I don’t see a problem with judgement or either of us pushing too hard.”

诺曼德和科斯塔两人都曾与邓普斯特在中国和巴基斯坦一道多次攀登。当被问及邓普斯特和亚当森的死亡对他们看待登山的风险以及登山运动有什么影响时，两人的观点稍有不同。“就风险的问题而言，我没有什么充满哲理的答案。”诺曼德谈到。对登山运动的追求本身，就需要人们将自己推向一种临界状态，需要人们谨慎从事，而且希望自己不要越界，他劝诫说。不过他在群山中已经历险数年了。虽然求得平衡并不是个完美的艺术，不过他觉得，至少对自己和科斯塔来说，“我不会武端地判断一个问题，也不会让我们勉为其难。”

Costa demurs slightly more than Normand on the question of risk. On the way down from Cogar Lapka, after doing a series of raps off of V-threads, Costa and Normand heard an explosion like a sonic-boom. A huge serac had collapsed right on top of their rappel route from their aborted attempt the day before— the one which convinced Dempster that the objective risks were too high to warrant another try.“We realized why Kyle hadn’t wanted to come,” Costa says. “If we had found the V-thread from the night before instead of setting up a new one,” as they had originally hoped to, “we would have been just under the serac, and we’d be dead.”

关于风险的问题，科斯塔对诺曼德的观点提出了一点异议。在从Cogar Lapka回来的路上，完成一系列冰洞下降之后，科斯塔和诺曼德听到了一个音爆样的爆炸声。一个巨大的冰塔就在他们前一天放弃攀登时下降路线的正上方崩塌了——正是那个冰塔让邓普斯特确信，那里的客观风险大得无法进行另一次尝试。“我们知道为什么凯尔不想和我们一同前来了。”科斯塔谈到。“如果我们把冰洞安置在前一天晚上那个位置，而不是选一个新位置，”就像他们最初想的那样，“那么，我们就正好位于那个冰塔的下面，所以，我们就无法生还了。”

With this particular episode in mind, Costa say, “I decided after the Cogar Lapka climb that I don’t want to take quite that much risk in the future. Accepting risk in the mountains is definitely a tricky question.” Nonetheless, he has no intention of returning to his days of just clipping bolts. “Does it make me want to climb less? No. I say to my friends, ‘We can all die you know? You can get hit by a car. Just because there’s a risk, doesn’t mean you stay home.’ Same for climbing for me.”

因为想到了这个特别的情节，科斯塔说：“我决定，攀上Cogar Lapka以后，将来再也不会冒那么大的风险了。在崇山峻岭中承担风险，绝对是个棘手的问题。”然而，他并不想回到只是靠锚栓和快挂攀登的日子。“危险会让我减少攀登吗？当然不会。我曾对我朋友们说过：‘你知道，我们都会死的，对吧？你可能会被汽车撞死。只是因为出行有风险，并不意味着你就要呆在家里。’对我来说，登山也是一样的。”

Normand, though he usually deferred to Costa or Dempster to lead the most technical pitches, can keep up with the best of them. He says, “For all the hard leading Kyle ever did with me bouncing along behind him, carrying the heavy pack, I never once had to hang on the rope. He didn’t pull me up all that shit.”

虽然诺曼德通常尊重科斯塔或邓普斯特领攀最需要技术的单段线路，不过他总能紧跟他们的脚步。他谈到：“所有凯尔领攀的艰难线路，我都能身背沉重的背包紧随其后，从不需要被迫悬吊在绳索上。他也不用把可怜的我拉上去。”

Likewise, Costa is not just a ropegun. He has taken Normand’s wisdom and experience and applied it towards planning his own expeditions in the mountains. One of his top objectives for the coming season is a third attempt on the notorious Seerdengpu (5,592 m), where he is taking the fast and light approach he honed with Normand to new levels.

同样，科斯塔也不再只是个“ropegun”（指擅长领攀，并将绳索安置在安全设备上，让其他人沿绳索向上攀登的登山者。——译者注）。他汲取了诺曼德的智慧和经验，并将它们用来规划自己的攀登探险之旅。他在下一个季节的主要目标之一，就是第三次冲击恶名昭彰的色尔登普峰（Seerdengpu）（海拔5,592米），他要在那里把和诺曼德一起磨练的快速、轻装策略推向新高度。

Normand says he’s likely done with China for a while; too many other places and mountains he’d like to see and try. And that just leaves opportunity for other aspiring adventurers. “There’s a lot of unclimbed mountains in the world,” Normand says. “I don’t have a problem with people climbing routes I’ve scoped. If somebody else is actually going to put in all the time and all the money and all the energy to get to the bottom of this mountain, more power to them. I’ll go and find another mountain. There’s no shortage.”

诺曼德谈到，他可能有段时间不在中国登山了，有太多的地方和太多的山峰他都想去看看，都想去攀登。还是把机会留给其他雄心勃勃的冒险家吧。“世界上有太多的未登峰。”诺曼德说道。“有人要攀登我看中的线路，对我来说不是个问题。如果别人确实投注了所有的时间、所有的金钱和所有的精力来到山脚下，那就祝他们成功吧。我会离开，去找其他山峰。这个世界可从来不缺高峰。"

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