Diplomacy at 7,000 metres[qh]
在海拔7000米的地方搞外交[qh]

Down at sea-level, he was a tireless organiser. Everything to do with mountains demanded his attention and his infectious energy. He didn't belong behind a desk, and at Sunderland Poly, where he took a teaching degree in 1983, he bunked off lectures to go climbing. But if he had to protect and promote the peaks by doing paperwork, he would.[qh]

下山之后，他变身一个不知疲倦的组织者。他会用他那富有感染力的热情认真处理任何与山有关的事情。他不是那种坐办公室的料，虽然1983年他在桑德兰理工学院取得了教育学学位，但随后丢掉讲师之职去登山了。但如果必须通过写文书来保护并推广各大山峰，他还是会去写点什么的。[qh]

For 12 years he took charge at the British Mountaineering Council, swelling both membership and revenues, arranging competitions and writing memos late and long, until he would bolt from the Manchester office to scale the nearest crags. He brought mountaineering to schoolchildren (remembering how he had discovered it in the Scouts in Hammersmith), and to the disabled. He also took his expertise abroad, teaching young Iranians to climb and Sikkimese to become guides like himself; and he became a diplomat of the Greater Ranges, urging Indian and Pakistani climbers to forget their countries' long rivalry over the Siachen glacier.[qh]

他还主持了12年的英国登山协会，期间主要负责扩充会员，提高收入，安排赛事并写一些备忘录。该职一直持续到他忍不住从新投入到登山生涯中去。他还让小学生（要知道他是如何在汉默史密斯的童子军中接触到登山的）和残疾人有机会参与到登山运动中去。他还到国外传授专业登山知识，比如教伊朗的年轻人如何爬山，教锡金邦的人如果成为像他一样的向导；并且他还成了一名亚洲各大高山之间外交官，呼吁印巴登山者忘掉在锡阿琴冰川上的长期对峙。[qh]

The people of the mountains he remembered, too. On his ascent of K2 he took a pair of micro-hydroelectric systems to give non-smoky light and heat to two remote villages. This made the trip for him, though he never reached the top. He kept a watch on how climate change was affecting both the Himalayas and the Alps. But he never wanted to be part of any large and overstuffed expedition. Nor did he seek out the celebrity peaks, or brag about “conquering” the unsung 6,000-7,000-metre peaks he preferred.[qh]

此外，他还不忘山上的人们，也给他们带去了福祉。在他征服乔戈里峰（K2）的时候，他给两处偏远的村庄带去了一对微型水利发电系统，该系统可用于无烟照明和制热。虽然他从未到过乔戈里峰峰顶，但也没白跑一趟。他还留心观察气候变化对喜马拉雅山脉和阿尔卑斯山脉的影响。但他从未想过参与一次任何大型的装备精良的登山远征。他也不想涉足那些大众青睐的山峰，亦或是吹嘘自己征服了哪些六七千米的无名之山。[qh]

For that reason, he was not among the best-known mountaineers. The first many people had heard of him was when, in early July, an avalanche caused by a toppling ice-block swept him away, with eight others, on Mont Maudit, beside Mont Blanc. He was guiding two clients along a popular route; the way and the weather looked safe. He was travelling light, on what he liked to call “another day in the office”. As no one knew better than himself, there was no perfect safety in mountains. But he would not have been in any other place, for, in Byron's words, “Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends”.[qh]

正因如此，他并未进入最著名的登山者之列。人们初次听到他的名字或许是这样的：7月初，一场发生在穆迪峰上（位于勃朗峰附近）的一场雪崩夺去了他和另外8名同伴的生命。该雪崩由一块断裂的方冰引发。当时他正在引导两个客户沿一条众人常走的路线行进；无论是道路还是天气看起来都没有安全隐患。那天他轻装上阵，用他的话说就是“跟在办公室里穿得差不多”。但他最清楚在山区是没有绝对安全可谈的。但他不想离开大山去别的地方，用拜伦的一句诗来说就是“山之所起，友之所在”。[qh]