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2006年5月，英国登山者大卫·夏普在第三次攀登珠穆朗玛峰时遇上暴风雪，氧气耗尽，生命垂危。在接下来的一段时间里，大约有40名登山者从他身边经过，但没有一个人伸出援手。这40多个人中，其中有一位是新西兰的无腿登山者，他在登上珠峰之颠的时候，感觉自己“像是上了天”！然而，同时许多人指责他的人道和品格是“下了地狱”。
此事在世界范围内引起广泛关注和讨论——究竟是人的生命重要，还是征服这座全世界所有登山爱好者心中的女神、素有“死亡之峰”之称的珠穆朗玛峰更重要？
也许所有不曾登过珠峰的人都不配给这些勇于挑战生命极限的勇士们简单地作是非对错的判定，因为正如女登山爱好者杰妮·阿罗德所说：“在世界最高峰附近，人道和勇气的含义绝不同于地面。在那里，生命最顽强，也最脆弱，却最灿烂，最自然；无论生还者，还是死去的人，他们的理想都同世界顶峰相伴。所以，才有不断的登山者，迈过死亡，冲向顶峰。”
在对勇于向“死亡地带”进发的登山勇士表示钦佩的同时，让我们也对本文的主人公——一位立志要向逝去的同伴归还尊严的登山者——献上我们的敬意！
She was alone on a mountain shelf when they found her—a frozen, 1)pathetic fi-gure, just 800ft below the summit of Everest.
When they eventually reached her, she barely had the strength left to speak. But Francys Arsentiev’s last words would stay with them for the rest of their lives: “Don’t leave me,” she begged. “Please, don’t leave me!” In the 2)treacherous terrain of the world’s highest mountain, and in temperatures below minus 300C, they had little choice.
They stayed with her for as long as they could, before abandoning their summit attempt and heading back down for help. In their hearts, however, they knew they were leaving her to die.
By the time another climbing party got to her, Fran had already 3)succumbed to the cold. No-one could help her now.
It was too dangerous even to contemplate carrying her lifeless body down the 4)North Face from its 5)precarious position on the loose rock 6)shards that formed the steep mountain shelf. And so, for the next nine years, the 40-year-old American would remain a 7)macabre beacon of death at 28,000ft—clearly visible to the many adventurers who would subsequently take the same route to the top. Even today, the bright purple of her climbing jacket still stands out against the snow.
But now—finally—she is about to be afforded some dignity. Ian Woodall, the British-born climber who had to leave her in May 1998, has gone back to Everest to bury her. He will wrap her in an American flag, 8)lay her to rest within sight of the summit she had earlier conquered, and cover her with a 9)cairn of stones and 10)boulders to shield her body from view.
Then he will speak at her graveside-and bring to a close the promise that he and his climbing partner Cathy O’Dowd made that day to do everything they could for her. Yesterday, from a camp more than 17,000ft up the North side of Everest, the 50-year-old mountaineer told me by satellite telephone:
“I was a little startled to see her still there... until it 11)dawned on me that the mountain would never really consume her. It would always keep her there, like that. At the back of my mind, I hoped someone would eventually do something for her. But of course, the only reason anyone would be up that high is if they’re on the way up to the summit, or on the way down.
“In either case, you really can’t devote the hours and the workload required to bury a 12)corpse. It needed a dedicated mission by someone like me, who’s been to the summit a couple of times already, and isn’t focused simply on getting to the top.
“It’s not good that there are bodies lying on the mountain in full view of other climbers—not good for mountaineering, not good for the families of the people who’ve died here.” Fran, from Colorado, USA, died after securing a place in the record books as the first American woman to conquer Everest without supplementary oxygen.
She is believed to have 13)collapsed or fallen, just below the so-called 14)First Step, some 800ft into her descent, as she climbed down with her Russian husband Serguei Arsentiev.
Ian and Cathy tried for more than an hour to keep Fran conscious and see if they could move her before deciding it was hopeless. When she slipped into silence they abandoned their climb and descended towards Base Camp, knowing, in reality, that they could not raise help in time to save her.
Fran, who had a young son, is one of three bodies Mr. Woodall is hoping to bury. One is an Indian who 15)perished in a 1996 storm; the other is David Sharp, who died last May after appa-rently running out of oxygen on his lone descent from the summit.
Ian is 16)chronicling his mission on the internet at www.taoofeverest.com, and plans to write a book. “A lot can go wrong at 8,600 metres,” he said. “But it would be nice to finish one’s expedition career by doing something for somebody else, rather than chasing a record or a summit. At least, this way we can give everybody back some dignity.”
当他们发现她的时候，她孤零零地倒在一块山岩上，躯体已经冻僵，模样悲惨。当时，她距离珠穆朗玛峰顶仅有800英尺（约240米）。
当他们最终靠近她身旁时，她几乎已经没有说话的力气了。但弗兰西丝·阿森提耶夫使尽全身气力挤出的最后几个字将永远留在他们的脑海中：“别丢下我，”她恳求道，“求求你们，别扔下我！”但身处世界最高峰，那里尽是变幻莫测的险峻地形，气温在零下30oC以下，他们别无选择。
他们在她身边尽可能陪伴得久一些，随后放弃了向顶峰进发的努力，转头下山去求救。然而，他们内心清楚地知道，他们一走，她就只有死路一条了。
等到另一队登山者发现弗兰的时候，她已经悄无声息地向严寒屈服。没有人可以救她了。
珠穆朗玛峰的北坡地形险峻，陡峭的山岩上堆积着极易滚动的碎石，要把弗兰的尸体从北坡抬下去，光是这个念头就已经够危险了，更别说实行。因此，在接下来的9年时间里，这位40岁的美国女子的尸体就一直躺在这里，如一个在海拔28000英尺（约8400米）高处的死亡地标一般——此后走同一条路登顶的许多探险者都能清楚地看到她。即便是在今天，弗兰的亮紫色登山服在皑皑白雪的映衬下依然格外显眼。
但现在，弗兰终于可以得到一些该享有的尊严了。出生于英国的登山家伊恩·伍多尔在1998年5月被迫把垂死的弗兰独自留在山上后，现在重返珠穆朗玛峰，埋葬弗兰的尸体。他会为她裹上美国国旗，把她葬在距离她曾经征服过的顶峰咫尺之遥的地方，堆石成冢，好让她的遗体从此不再暴露在路人的眼前。
接下来，他会在她的墓旁说上几句话。至此，他终于实现了当年自己和登山的同伴凯茜·欧道一同许下的承诺——总有一天，他俩会回来尽力为她做点事情。昨天，在位于珠穆朗玛峰北坡海拔超过17000英尺（约5100米）的营地上，50岁的伊恩通过卫星电话对我说：
“当我看到她依然躺在那里，和当年一模一样时，我有几分震惊……直到我逐渐明白，这座山永远不会真的吞噬她，而会一直保留她原来的模样。在我心底，我希望终有人会为她做点事，但当然，人们之所以会爬到那么高，不外乎是为了冲击顶峰，或者是刚从山顶下来。
“无论是哪一种情况，你都不可能有足够的时间和精力去埋葬一具尸体。必须要有像我这样的专门为此而去登一趟山的人才行，我已经好几次登到珠峰之巅，所以，我已经不会一味地去冲击顶峰了。
“罹难者的尸体就这样毫无遮掩、一览无遗地展露在其他登山者的眼前，这对登山运动不利，对死者的家属也不尊重。”当年，来自美国科罗拉多州的罹难者弗兰作为第一位不带氧气装备攀登珠峰的美国女性被载入了史册。
人们相信她是从顶峰往山下折返了大约800英尺（约240米）的时候，在著名的“第一台阶”下面由于体力不支而倒下，或是摔倒的。当时，她正与她的俄罗斯丈夫塞格伊·阿森提耶夫一同下山。
当年，伊恩和凯茜在弗兰身边呆了一个多小时，试图让弗兰保持清醒，他们思忖着能否把她抬下山去，但后来发现那是徒劳无功的。当弗兰的身体没什么反应以后，他们决定不再继续往上爬，而是下山返回营地。他们明白，事实上，他们肯定无法及时找到能救她的帮手。
弗兰当时已是一位年幼男孩的母亲。伍多尔先生这次上山准备埋葬三名登山者的尸体，弗兰是其中之一；第二位是1996年被一次暴风雪夺去生命的一名印度人；最后一位遇难者名叫大卫·夏普，他在去年5月独自一人从顶峰折返时死亡，显然这是由于氧气耗尽而造成的。
伊恩正把他的这次行动详细地记录在www.taoofeverest.com这个网站上，他还打算写一本书。“在8600米的高度上，许多事情都会出错，”他说道，“但为其他人做点事，以这种方式结束自己的探险生涯，其实挺好的，我们不必一心想着打破记录，或者是征服顶峰。这样我们至少可以把一些尊严归还给每一个人。”
此事在世界范围内引起广泛关注和讨论——究竟是人的生命重要，还是征服这座全世界所有登山爱好者心中的女神、素有“死亡之峰”之称的珠穆朗玛峰更重要？
也许所有不曾登过珠峰的人都不配给这些勇于挑战生命极限的勇士们简单地作是非对错的判定，因为正如女登山爱好者杰妮·阿罗德所说：“在世界最高峰附近，人道和勇气的含义绝不同于地面。在那里，生命最顽强，也最脆弱，却最灿烂，最自然；无论生还者，还是死去的人，他们的理想都同世界顶峰相伴。所以，才有不断的登山者，迈过死亡，冲向顶峰。”
在对勇于向“死亡地带”进发的登山勇士表示钦佩的同时，让我们也对本文的主人公——一位立志要向逝去的同伴归还尊严的登山者——献上我们的敬意！
She was alone on a mountain shelf when they found her—a frozen, 1)pathetic fi-gure, just 800ft below the summit of Everest.
When they eventually reached her, she barely had the strength left to speak. But Francys Arsentiev’s last words would stay with them for the rest of their lives: “Don’t leave me,” she begged. “Please, don’t leave me!” In the 2)treacherous terrain of the world’s highest mountain, and in temperatures below minus 300C, they had little choice.
They stayed with her for as long as they could, before abandoning their summit attempt and heading back down for help. In their hearts, however, they knew they were leaving her to die.
By the time another climbing party got to her, Fran had already 3)succumbed to the cold. No-one could help her now.
It was too dangerous even to contemplate carrying her lifeless body down the 4)North Face from its 5)precarious position on the loose rock 6)shards that formed the steep mountain shelf. And so, for the next nine years, the 40-year-old American would remain a 7)macabre beacon of death at 28,000ft—clearly visible to the many adventurers who would subsequently take the same route to the top. Even today, the bright purple of her climbing jacket still stands out against the snow.
But now—finally—she is about to be afforded some dignity. Ian Woodall, the British-born climber who had to leave her in May 1998, has gone back to Everest to bury her. He will wrap her in an American flag, 8)lay her to rest within sight of the summit she had earlier conquered, and cover her with a 9)cairn of stones and 10)boulders to shield her body from view.
Then he will speak at her graveside-and bring to a close the promise that he and his climbing partner Cathy O’Dowd made that day to do everything they could for her. Yesterday, from a camp more than 17,000ft up the North side of Everest, the 50-year-old mountaineer told me by satellite telephone:
“I was a little startled to see her still there... until it 11)dawned on me that the mountain would never really consume her. It would always keep her there, like that. At the back of my mind, I hoped someone would eventually do something for her. But of course, the only reason anyone would be up that high is if they’re on the way up to the summit, or on the way down.
“In either case, you really can’t devote the hours and the workload required to bury a 12)corpse. It needed a dedicated mission by someone like me, who’s been to the summit a couple of times already, and isn’t focused simply on getting to the top.
“It’s not good that there are bodies lying on the mountain in full view of other climbers—not good for mountaineering, not good for the families of the people who’ve died here.” Fran, from Colorado, USA, died after securing a place in the record books as the first American woman to conquer Everest without supplementary oxygen.
She is believed to have 13)collapsed or fallen, just below the so-called 14)First Step, some 800ft into her descent, as she climbed down with her Russian husband Serguei Arsentiev.
Ian and Cathy tried for more than an hour to keep Fran conscious and see if they could move her before deciding it was hopeless. When she slipped into silence they abandoned their climb and descended towards Base Camp, knowing, in reality, that they could not raise help in time to save her.
Fran, who had a young son, is one of three bodies Mr. Woodall is hoping to bury. One is an Indian who 15)perished in a 1996 storm; the other is David Sharp, who died last May after appa-rently running out of oxygen on his lone descent from the summit.
Ian is 16)chronicling his mission on the internet at www.taoofeverest.com, and plans to write a book. “A lot can go wrong at 8,600 metres,” he said. “But it would be nice to finish one’s expedition career by doing something for somebody else, rather than chasing a record or a summit. At least, this way we can give everybody back some dignity.”
当他们发现她的时候，她孤零零地倒在一块山岩上，躯体已经冻僵，模样悲惨。当时，她距离珠穆朗玛峰顶仅有800英尺（约240米）。
当他们最终靠近她身旁时，她几乎已经没有说话的力气了。但弗兰西丝·阿森提耶夫使尽全身气力挤出的最后几个字将永远留在他们的脑海中：“别丢下我，”她恳求道，“求求你们，别扔下我！”但身处世界最高峰，那里尽是变幻莫测的险峻地形，气温在零下30oC以下，他们别无选择。
他们在她身边尽可能陪伴得久一些，随后放弃了向顶峰进发的努力，转头下山去求救。然而，他们内心清楚地知道，他们一走，她就只有死路一条了。
等到另一队登山者发现弗兰的时候，她已经悄无声息地向严寒屈服。没有人可以救她了。
珠穆朗玛峰的北坡地形险峻，陡峭的山岩上堆积着极易滚动的碎石，要把弗兰的尸体从北坡抬下去，光是这个念头就已经够危险了，更别说实行。因此，在接下来的9年时间里，这位40岁的美国女子的尸体就一直躺在这里，如一个在海拔28000英尺（约8400米）高处的死亡地标一般——此后走同一条路登顶的许多探险者都能清楚地看到她。即便是在今天，弗兰的亮紫色登山服在皑皑白雪的映衬下依然格外显眼。
但现在，弗兰终于可以得到一些该享有的尊严了。出生于英国的登山家伊恩·伍多尔在1998年5月被迫把垂死的弗兰独自留在山上后，现在重返珠穆朗玛峰，埋葬弗兰的尸体。他会为她裹上美国国旗，把她葬在距离她曾经征服过的顶峰咫尺之遥的地方，堆石成冢，好让她的遗体从此不再暴露在路人的眼前。
接下来，他会在她的墓旁说上几句话。至此，他终于实现了当年自己和登山的同伴凯茜·欧道一同许下的承诺——总有一天，他俩会回来尽力为她做点事情。昨天，在位于珠穆朗玛峰北坡海拔超过17000英尺（约5100米）的营地上，50岁的伊恩通过卫星电话对我说：
“当我看到她依然躺在那里，和当年一模一样时，我有几分震惊……直到我逐渐明白，这座山永远不会真的吞噬她，而会一直保留她原来的模样。在我心底，我希望终有人会为她做点事，但当然，人们之所以会爬到那么高，不外乎是为了冲击顶峰，或者是刚从山顶下来。
“无论是哪一种情况，你都不可能有足够的时间和精力去埋葬一具尸体。必须要有像我这样的专门为此而去登一趟山的人才行，我已经好几次登到珠峰之巅，所以，我已经不会一味地去冲击顶峰了。
“罹难者的尸体就这样毫无遮掩、一览无遗地展露在其他登山者的眼前，这对登山运动不利，对死者的家属也不尊重。”当年，来自美国科罗拉多州的罹难者弗兰作为第一位不带氧气装备攀登珠峰的美国女性被载入了史册。
人们相信她是从顶峰往山下折返了大约800英尺（约240米）的时候，在著名的“第一台阶”下面由于体力不支而倒下，或是摔倒的。当时，她正与她的俄罗斯丈夫塞格伊·阿森提耶夫一同下山。
当年，伊恩和凯茜在弗兰身边呆了一个多小时，试图让弗兰保持清醒，他们思忖着能否把她抬下山去，但后来发现那是徒劳无功的。当弗兰的身体没什么反应以后，他们决定不再继续往上爬，而是下山返回营地。他们明白，事实上，他们肯定无法及时找到能救她的帮手。
弗兰当时已是一位年幼男孩的母亲。伍多尔先生这次上山准备埋葬三名登山者的尸体，弗兰是其中之一；第二位是1996年被一次暴风雪夺去生命的一名印度人；最后一位遇难者名叫大卫·夏普，他在去年5月独自一人从顶峰折返时死亡，显然这是由于氧气耗尽而造成的。
伊恩正把他的这次行动详细地记录在www.taoofeverest.com这个网站上，他还打算写一本书。“在8600米的高度上，许多事情都会出错，”他说道，“但为其他人做点事，以这种方式结束自己的探险生涯，其实挺好的，我们不必一心想着打破记录，或者是征服顶峰。这样我们至少可以把一些尊严归还给每一个人。”