‘It Was Like a Zoo’: Death on an Unruly, Overcrowded Everest
像在动物园里面一样，在混乱拥挤的珠峰死亡
① Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona, had dreamed his whole life of reaching the top of Mount Everest. But when he summited a few days ago, he was shocked by what he saw.
Ed Dohring是一位来自美国亚利桑那州的医生，他一生的梦想就是登上珠峰之巅。但当他几天前登顶时，被眼前的景象惊呆了。
② Climbers were pushing and shoving to take selfies. The flat part of the summit, which he estimated at about the size of two Ping-Pong tables, was packed with 15 or 20 people. To get up there, he had to wait hours in a line, chest to chest, on an icy, rocky ridge with a several-thousand foot drop.
登山者们推来搡去的争相自拍。据他估计山顶平地大概有2个乒乓球桌大小，却挤了15到20人。想要上去，他不得不在结满冰的崎岖山脊上摩肩接踵的排队几个小时，而脚下则是高达千仞的峭壁。
③ “It was scary,” he said. “It was like a zoo.”
“太可怕了，就像一个动物园一样。”
④ This has been one of the deadliest climbing seasons on Everest, with at least 11 deaths. And at least some seem to have been avoidable.
眼下攀登珠峰是死亡率最高的季节，至少已经有11人死亡。至少有些人的死亡看上去应该可以避免的。
⑤ The problem hasn’t been avalanches, blizzards or high winds. Veteran climbers and industry leaders blame having too many people on the mountain, in general, and too many inexperienced climbers, in particular.
造成死亡的原因并不是雪崩、暴风雪或大风。资深登山者和行业领袖将他们的死归咎于山上总体人数太多，尤其是有太多经验不足的登山者。
⑥ Fly-by-night adventure companies are taking up untrained climbers who pose a risk to everyone on the mountain. And the Nepalese government, hungry for every climbing dollar it can get, has issued more permits than Everest can safely handle, some experienced mountaineers say.
一些唯利是图的探险公司把众多未经训练的登山者都送了上来，而他们将山上的每个人都置于危险的境地。一些经验丰富的登山者表示，尼泊尔政府，因基于登山者带来的收入，发放的登山许可证数量超出了珠峰的承载力。
⑦ The result is a crowded, unruly scene reminiscent of “Lord of the Flies” — at 29,000 feet. At that altitude, there is no room for error.
其结果是，在2.9万英尺的山峰之巅，上演了想“蝇王”一样的拥挤而混乱的景象，但在这样的海拔上，没有任何犯错的空间。
转载于:https://www.jianshu.com/p/1f93a63f6de1