世界上最长寿的登山向导乌尔里希·因德比宁 | 经济学人讣告

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Obituary--Ulrich Inderbinen

讣告| 乌尔里希·因德比宁

Ulrich Inderbinen, the world’s oldest mountain guide, died on June 14th, aged 103

乌尔里希·因德比宁，世界上最长寿的登山向导于6月14日逝世，享年103岁。

The Matterhorn in Switzerland, with its bent, jagged peak and steep glacial ridges, is frequently climbed these days. As on many popular yet difficult mountains, ropes and ladders are fixed permanently into the rock and ice, and huts line the route to the summit. But the Matterhorn has long had a reputation for deadliness—half the members of the first group to climb it, in 1865, perished on the descent—and it remains one of the world’s most dangerous peaks. Crowds make it more so, as novice climbers are tempted by its fame.

坐落在瑞士的马特洪峰有着弯曲的锯齿状山峰和陡峭的冰川山脊，如今已成为攀登者的心头爱。和许多有名又艰险的山峰一样，这里的岩石和冰面上一直固定着绳索和梯子，通往山顶的路上排列着木屋。但马特洪峰素有“死亡之山”的称号：1865年，第一批登山队中有一半的人在下山时丧生。马特洪峰至今仍然是世界上最危险的山峰之一。由于有不少新手慕名前来，纷至沓来的登山者使其看上去更为艰险。

This awesome mountain was a hugely important place in Ulrich Inderbinen’s life. He was born in 1900 in Zermatt, at the mountain’s foot: a remote village of only 750 people, with tourism a small but burgeoning industry. Mr Inderbinen rarely left the region of his birth, and was 20 before he took the train to the nearest town. To make up for it, he climbed out of the valley quite often—almost daily for nearly 70 years. He scaled all 14,700 feet of the Matterhorn more than 370 times, though he is said to have lost track of the exact number.

这座雄伟山峰在乌尔里希·因德比宁的一生中占据着举足轻重的地位。1900年，他出生在山脚下的采尔马特。这是一个只有750人的偏远村庄，当时这里的旅游业规模虽小，但发展迅速。因德比宁鲜少离开他的出生地，直到20岁才第一次坐火车去到最近的城镇。为了弥补年轻时没有出远门的空白，他经常翻越山谷——几乎日日不断，坚持了近70年。他曾370多次登顶这座海拔14700英尺的马特洪峰，不过据说他自己也记不清具体数字了。

Mr Inderbinen thought the Matterhorn “the most beautiful mountain in the world”. Although it was only one of many mountains he climbed over the course of the 20th century, guiding innumerable clients up and down with inexhaustible good cheer, no other so engrossed him. On his first ascent, at the age of 20, he went with his sister Martha and a friend of hers. The girls wore long skirts and their ordinary shoes, and the lanterns they were carrying kept blowing out. Since none of them knew the route, they followed scratch-marks made by previous climbers on the rocks. On his last ascent, bent double under his ropes at the age of almost 90, he conquered the mountain in four hours.

因德比宁认为马特洪峰是“世界上最美丽的山”。尽管这只是他20世纪爬过的众多山峰中的一座，但是没有哪座山能让他如此着迷。他总是兴致勃勃地带领无数游客上山下山。20岁时，他第一次跟妹妹玛莎和她的一个朋友一起攀登马特洪峰。女孩们穿着长裙和普通的鞋子，手里的灯笼一次又一次熄灭。由于他们都不知道上山的路线，他们只能沿着登山者在岩石上留下的划痕前进。最后一次攀登时，年近九十的他扛着绳子伛偻前行，在4小时内登顶。

Mr Inderbinen met life with the same equanimity as the mountains, his dry wit punctuating his monumental energy. When asked if he ever got bored, climbing the same peaks again and again, he replied, “Only when the clients walk too slowly.” When one journalist pointed out an enthusiastic review from an American client in the 1930s, Mr Inderbinen replied: “Perhaps he did not know any other guides.”

面对生活，因德比宁和山一样平静，他散发着无穷的活力，为人处世机智而不露声色。曾经有人问他反反复复爬那几座山，会不会感到无聊，他回答：“只有在客人走得太慢的时候。”有位记者告诉他上世纪30年代光顾过的一位美国客人为他写了篇热情洋溢的评价，他却说：“恐怕这位客人就认识我这一个向导。”

But rivalry was by no means absent from Mr Inderbinen’s life. As a young guide, he would walk for four hours each morning to catch visitors disembarking from the train above Zermatt. He took up ski-racing at 82 when he realised that, with no other competitors in his age-group, he could win every race—which he did. Until almost the end of the century he continued to take climbers up easier local peaks, proving to other guides how sure he still was. For his 95th birthday he was given an ice-axe as a present, which he put to good use. One of his few regrets was his family’s veto of an attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, when he was 92.

但是，因德比宁的人生绝不缺乏较量。年轻的时候，他每天早上要走四个小时，去接在采尔马特附近下火车的游客。82岁的时候，他开始参加竞速滑雪比赛；由于没有同年龄段的对手，所以只要参赛，他就是冠军（他也确实拿到了冠军）。直到上世纪末，他还在带领登山者攀爬当地没那么险峻的山峰，向其他向导证明自己依然宝刀不老。95岁生日的时候，有人送他一把冰镐，他也物尽其用。他的人生几乎没有遗憾，仅有的其中之一是92岁的时候，本想攀登非洲最高峰乞力马扎罗山，却被家里人拦了下来。

On larch-wood skis

踏着落叶松雪板

Mr Inderbinen might have been a farmer like his parents. Much of his early life was spent herding cows and picking edelweiss for tourists. He did not get his first skis, made from local larch, until he was 20. But he eventually chose mountain-guiding in emulation of his uncle Moritz, a famous guide when Mr Inderbinen was a child.

因德比宁原本可能和他的父母一样，一辈子务农。早年间，他大多数时候都在放牛，给游客采摘雪绒花。20岁那年，他有了人生第一副雪板，是用当地的落叶松制成的。不过最终，他还是追随叔叔莫里茨的脚步，当上了登山向导；这位叔叔在他小时候就已经颇有名气了。

At first, business was slow. Between customers, Mr Inderbinen had to cut trees and shovel snow. Then came the second world war, with no visitors at all. For a while Mr Inderbinen served in the ski patrol of the Swiss army. He would glide in the mountains above Zermatt, often alone and often at night, forbidden even to switch on a torch. Whether or not he truly helped the war effort, it was a billet that suited him exactly.

一开始生意并不好。他只好在歇业的时候砍砍树铲铲雪。后来第二次世界大战爆发，爬山的游客完全绝迹。有段时间，他服役于瑞士滑雪巡逻队。他常在夜晚独自滑翔于采尔马特的山里，甚至连手电筒都不得打开。且不论他对战事有无真正贡献，这工作对他而言实在是再合适不过了。

His chosen profession allowed for a bit more camaraderie in peacetime. Indeed, the profession of a guide entailed a paradoxical combination of solitude amongst the high glaciers and sociability among his fellow mountaineers. And once visitors poured back to Zermatt, he began to be in demand. Unusually in the climbing business, he sought fame through service—guiding others safely up mountains, rather than conquering them for himself.

他选择的职业让他可以在和平时期多体会到一丝同志情谊。事实上，向导这一职业有些矛盾：既要在高耸冰川间体味孤独，又要善于在登山者间交际自如。随着游客涌回采尔马特，他逐渐变得抢手起来。他在登山业里显得与众不同，因为他不是靠自己征服群山而出名，而是通过服务引导别人成功登山而名声在外。

Mr Inderbinen’s life was notably harmonious. He had no car, telephone or even bicycle, and chopped his own firewood deep into old age. He made his living on his feet or his skis, proceeding steadily; he did not believe, he said, in doing anything hastily, on the slopes or elsewhere. (This, however, was not always true; he gave up mountain-guiding, at 97, when he realised he had taken ten minutes longer than he should have done to decend the Breithorn.) He built his house with his own hands, finishing it in 1935, and lived in it for the rest of his life. He knew what he wanted, and had it close by. Especially, he wanted those particular mountains.

他的一生非常和谐。他没有车，没有手机，甚至没有自行车，年纪大了还自己砍柴。他靠自己的双脚和滑雪板谋生，稳步前行; 他说，他相信不管是在山坡还是其他地方，做事都不能草率着急（但也有例外，97岁时，他放弃登山向导的工作，因为他发现自己从布莱特峰下来的时间比原来慢了10分钟）。他的房子是自己亲手搭的，在1935年完工，他就在这间房子里度过了余生。他知道自己想要什么，而且想要的就在附近，尤其是那些独特的山峦。

George Mallory, a British mountaineer who tried to conquer Everest and died on it, famously said he wanted to climb the peak “because it is there.” Mallory crystallised a romantic vision of the mountaineer, chasing after dreams on ice-wrapped summits far from home and hearth. Ulrich Inderbinen could not have been more different. He went up mountains not because they were there, but because he was. He died gently, in his bed. And though he may not have been the first to climb the Matterhorn, he seems to have climbed it best.

英国登山家乔治·马洛里曾试图征服珠穆拉玛峰，但却葬身于此。他有句名言，说他想攀登峰顶，仅仅是因为“山就在那里”。马洛里就如登山者浪漫情怀的化身：背井离乡，在冰雪之巅追寻梦想。但乌尔里希·因德比宁却与此截然不同。他登上峰顶，不是因为群峰就在那里，而是因为他在那里。他在自己的床上平静地离开这个世界。尽管他不是攀登马特洪峰的第一人，但他似乎是其中“攀登”得最好的。

翻译组：

Benjiamin，MTI to be, 初学翻译的翻译小学生

Cassie，准MTI，一心想吃口译面，早日坐进小黑屋

Nikolae，新手人民教师，声优探索者，乃木坂47与AKB49

校对组：

Alison，女，翻译路上的小蜗牛

Mosy，绘本、演讲、戏剧英文教育践行者

Francis，达人观之，生死一耳；何必生之为乐，死之为悲