Name: 【TED】班．桑德斯: 往返南極點──生命中最艱難的 105 天 (Ben Saunders: To the South Pole and back — the hardest 105 days of my life)
Uploaded: 2015-01-31T22:00:04.000Z
Duration: 17 min 9 s

So in the oasis of  intelligentsia that is TED,

身在知識份子界的綠洲 — TED，

as an expert in dragging heavy stuff around cold places.

以拖著笨重物周遊寒冷地區的專家之姿站在台上

I've been leading polar expeditions  for most of my adult life,

我成年之後就一直帶領極地遠征隊，

and last month, my teammate  Tarka L'Herpiniere and I

上個月，我和夥伴塔卡．雷聶尼爾

finished the most ambitious  expedition I've ever attempted.

完成了我到目前為止最具企圖心的遠征

In fact, it feels like I've been transported straight here

其實我感覺好像直接被送來這裡，

from four months in the middle of nowhere,

在偏遠的某處度過悶哼使勁、詛咒連連的四個月之後，

mostly grunting and swearing,  straight to the TED stage.

So you can imagine that's a transition that hasn't been entirely seamless.

你可以說這個過渡期並非完全無縫接軌

seems to be that my short-term memory is entirely shot.

就是我的短期記憶似乎全都一閃而過

to avoid too much grunting and swearing in the next 17 minutes.

免得接下來的 17 分鐘有太多悶哼聲與詛咒

This is the first talk I've given about this expedition,

這是我在這趟遠征後的首次演說，

and while we weren't sequencing genomes or building space telescopes,

儘管我們不是做了基因定序或架設太空望遠鏡，

this is a story about giving everything we had to achieve something

但這段故事也是關於我們放棄一切

So I hope in that you might  find some food for thought.

希望你們能從中獲得一些精神糧食

It was a journey, an  expedition in Antarctica,

the coldest, windiest, driest and highest altitude continent on Earth.

是在地球上最冷、風最大、最乾燥，海拔也最高的洲

It's a fascinating place. It's a huge place.

a continent that is the same size as China and India put together.

an interesting phenomenon in the last few days,

我經歷了一種很有意思的現象，

something that I expect Chris Hadfield may get at TED in a few years' time,

我預料幾年後克里斯．哈德菲爾德也會在 TED 經歷到

conversations that go something like this:

My husband and I did Antarctica with Lindblad for our anniversary."

我和老公結婚四週年的時候參加領步探險去過南極洲。」

Or, "Oh cool, did you go there for the marathon?"

或是「酷耶！你是去跑馬拉松嗎？」

Our journey was, in fact, 69 marathons back to back

我們的旅程其實就是連續 69 趟馬拉松，

in 105 days, an 1,800-mile round trip on foot from the coast of Antarctica

105 天徒步走完來回 1,800 哩路，

for the longest human-powered polar journey in history by more than 400 miles.

比史上用人力完成的最長極地旅程還長 400 哩

it was the same as walking from  here to San Francisco,

這段路就等於從這裡走到舊金山，

then turning around and walking back again.

So as camping trips go, it was a long one,

以露營旅行來說，這是長途旅行，

and one I've seen summarized  most succinctly here

on the hallowed pages  of Business Insider Malaysia.

是出現在《馬來西亞商業內幕》神聖的一頁裡

「兩名探險家完成極地遠征，前次挑戰探險隊無一生還」

克里斯．哈德菲爾德說得很清楚，

about fear and about the odds of success, and indeed the odds of survival.

他談到恐懼、成功的機率，還有存活的機率

Of the nine people in history that had attempted this journey before us,

在我們之前，史上有九個人嘗試這趟旅程，

這是羅伯特．法爾肯．史考特上尉，

He led the last team to attempt this expedition.

Scott and his rival Sir Ernest Shackleton,

史考特和對手歐內斯特．沙克爾頓爵士

both led expeditions battling to become the first to reach the South Pole,

都帶著遠征隊，爭著想成為抵達南極的第一人，

to chart and map the interior of Antarctica,

在當時南極是鮮為人知的地方，

because we could see the moon through telescopes.

因為我們至少能透過望遠鏡來看月球

Antarctica was, for the most part, a century ago, uncharted.

南極洲大部分在百年前的地圖上都還沒標出來

Scott's last expedition, the  Terra Nova Expedition in 1910,

史考特最後一次遠征，1910 年的新世界遠征隊，

using dogs, using petrol-driven tractors,

dropping multiple, pre-positioned depots of food and fuel

在預選的補給站卸下食物和燃料，

through which Scott's final team of five would travel to the Pole,

因此史考特的五人小隊才能抵達南極點，

where they would turn around and ski  back to the coast again on foot.

arrived at the South Pole  in January 1912

1912 年一月抵達南極點的時候，

to find they had been beaten to it by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen,

才發現羅爾德．亞孟森帶領的挪威探險隊已打敗他們，

And for more than a century this journey has remained unfinished.

一百多年來，還沒有人完成這趟旅程

Scott's team of five died  on the return journey.

史考特的五人小隊在回程途中全軍覆沒

我一直不斷問自己為什麼會這樣

How come this has remained  the high-water mark?

Scott's team covered 1,600 miles on foot.

So this is the high-water mark  of human endurance,

因此這可以說是人類在地球上最嚴酷的氣候中

human endeavor,  human athletic achievement

in arguably the harshest climate on Earth.

從 1912 年到現在沒人能打破記錄一樣

And of course some strange and  predictable combination of curiosity,

led me to thinking I might be the man to try to finish the job.

讓我想也許自己能成為完成目標的那個人

Unlike Scott's expedition, there were just two of us,

不像史考特遠征隊，我們只有兩個人，

and we set off from the coast of Antarctica in October last year,

去年十月我們從南極洲海岸出發，

史考特說這個過程是「人力拖運」

When I say it was like walking from here to San Francisco and back,

雖然我剛說那就像從這走到舊金山再回來，

I actually mean it was like dragging something that weighs a shade more

比最重的國家聯盟橄欖球員還重一點的東西

就是說一開始每個就有 440 磅，

the same weights that the weakest of Scott's ponies pulled.

和史考特最弱的小馬拖的一樣重

Early on, we averaged 0.5 miles per hour.

Perhaps the reason no one had  attempted this journey until now,

也許過去沒人嘗試走這趟旅程，

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【TED】班．桑德斯: 往返南極點──生命中最艱難的 105 天 (Ben Saunders: To the South Pole and back — the hardest 105 days of my life)

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