世界首个在喜马拉雅翼装飞行的中国女孩 | The First Chinese Wing-suit Flying Girl

A type of extreme sport, wing-suit flying is skydiving with a special "flying squirrel suit." The skydivers jump out of the plane, fly all the way with their "wings" before opening the parachute at an ideal altitude.

翼装飞行是极限运动——跳伞的一种。跳伞运动员身着“翼装”，又称“飞鼠装”从高空飞行器上跳下，翱翔一段时间后，在合适的高度开伞并降落。

"You look like a flying squirrel when you stretch the wing-suit. The air resistance helps you slow down the descent while giving you the push to fly ahead. You can control the speed and maneuver as you want through the slight movement of your body," Yu Yin, a skydiver, explains.

“离开飞机、展开翼装的时候，人就像飞鼠一样，利用空气阻力，在减缓下降速度的同时形成向前飞行的动力，利用身体摆动，准确地转弯以及控制飞行的方向和速度。”高空跳伞爱好者于音介绍说。

Her name comes with several marvelous records.

与她的名字一起出现的，往往还有几个奇迹般的数字：

In May 2017, she broke the women's skydiving record with an altitude of 30,000 feet. In November of the same year, she became the first woman and the first Chinese to fly above the Himalayas in a wing-suit, right towards the peak of Mount Qomolangma.

2017年5月，她以3万英尺刷新中国女性跳伞高度的纪录。2017年11月，她更是作为首个女性、中国人，翼装飞跃喜马拉雅，并向珠穆朗玛峰飞去。

For that moment, she had been preparing for almost 10 years.

为了这一天，她努力了近10年。

Yu went to study finance in the United States in 2008. Later, she worked in a Fortune 500 company and enrolled in skydiving training as a hobby.

2008年，于音到美国留学，学习金融专业。之后，她一边在世界500强的大企业打拼，一边接受业余跳伞训练。

"Of course, I was petrified when I jumped out for the first time. I thought I'd put my life in my coach's hands." Any unintentional tiny change in the posture would let her swoop in another direction, which made her quite excited, but also nervous and scared at the same time. 

“第一次跳伞肯定害怕呀，当时就觉得把命都交给这个跳伞教练了。”身体姿态稍微改变一点，就会往自己完全想不到的方向滑过去。这让她在兴奋之余，也感到拘谨和恐惧。

Gradually, the sense of achievement she gained in skydiving surpassed that of her work. Like an explorer sailing for the continent she had just discovered, Yu quit her job and was dedicated to the new realm. 

但是，渐渐地，跳伞给她带来的成就感远远超过了工作。就像发现新大陆的探险家一样，于音辞了职，全身心地奔向了这片新的领域。

The training and equipment are expensive. Living mostly on her savings, she had to work as a coach and look for patronage while planning for her own projects.

因为跳伞的训练和装备的成本都十分高昂，除了之前的工作积蓄，她一边计划着自己的跳伞项目，一边当教练、带学员、拉赞助。

"It's not like I'm an escapist who chases dream and freedom," she says. "I just think of skydiving as something exceptional. It is cool, and I'm into it. I'm doing what I want to do. And I could do things that had never been done before. I could really create something with my own hands."

“其实我这么做不是像别人说的那样，是为了逃避现实追求梦想追求自由，”她说，“我就觉得它可能是有点出格的事情。跳伞很酷，我就是想跳伞，我就是在做自己想做的事情。而且，有些事情从前从来没有人做过。我觉得我能用自己的双手创造新的东西。”

Yu's mother once came to the US training base and wrote "safe journey" on her helmet in Chinese. Wearing that helmet, Yu dived better and higher. The tough training has broken her bones several times and left her with injuries everywhere. The worst fracture grounded her in the wheelchair for a month. "Nevertheless, I'm not going to live like a tragic hero. Just like a galloping horse, a swimming fish or a flying bird, I cannot stop there."

母亲到美国的训练基地看望于音时，在她的头盔上写了“一路平安”四个字。带着它，于音越跳越熟练，也越跳越高。期间，她骨折数次，浑身带伤，最严重的一次在轮椅上坐了一个月。“不过我怎能像一个悲情人物一样。马不停蹄，鱼不停鳍，鸟不停翼。”

"If anyone insisted that I quit the job for a poetic destination, I'd say that it was the Himalayas," she says. She'd practiced nearly 400 times for that single flight, in order to get used to the thin air and extreme cold in high altitude, and the risk of spinning that can result in unconsciousness.

“如果非要说我辞职是为了诗和远方的话，对我来说那个远方就是喜马拉雅。”她说。为了这次飞行，她练习了三四百跳。稀薄的空气、高空极寒的温度和离机自旋带来的风险，都被她在漫长的训练过程中一一克服。

Suffering from severe altitude sickness, she went to the sacred Himalayas by helicopter on November 3, 2017. 

终于，2017年11月3日，顶着严重的高原反应，她乘着直升机来到了这片许多极限运动爱好者心中的圣地。

"Looking out of the window, I saw the peak floating in the thin fog, like a goddess that had been waiting for me," she recalls. "The moment I'm out of the plane, all I felt was the cold. I was totally overwhelmed by the Himalayas as if they were embracing me. And when I went for Qomolangma, all I saw was the snow-capped white peaks. The view was stunning."

“当我顺着窗户望向珠峰顶的时候，珠峰上浮着一层淡淡的云气，似乎是一位女神在等待我的到来。”她回忆道。“离机之后，第一感觉就是冷。在飞的过程中，喜马拉雅就环绕着你，拥抱着你。向珠峰那个方向飞去，你看到的全都是那种白色山尖，那个感觉让人非常震撼。

"I felt myself totally immersed in nature. If nature were a huge jigsaw, then I was the missing piece. I completed it right at the moment," she says.

“当时的想法就是，和自然融为了一体。如果说自然是少了一块的巨型拼图，少的那一块就是我。在那个时刻，我把它拼上了。”她说。

It was a sense of holiness that rightfully belongs to her. "I used to dive for fun or for coaching. But this time I did it all for myself. Standing on the ground, your vision was limited without seeing the whole thing. But when you were very high above, you'd have a bird's eye view of the entire world and people living upon it from a completely different angle."

这是一种独属于她的、不受任何人左右的神圣感 。“以前跳伞要么是为了娱乐，要么是为了教学。这次完全是为了我自己。你在地面上的时候，看到的只是眼前的一些东西，你并没有看到它真实的景象。但你在天空中的时候，你真的是从一个完全不一样的视角去看下面的这些茫茫沧海，芸芸众生。”

That being said, Yu's success in skydiving is not only for herself. Her breaking records both as a Chinese and as a woman is inspiring. "I could hardly see a Chinese face when I began to skydive five years ago," she says, "but now I can see them every day in any of the bases." She feels that she's witnessed and still takes part in the promotion of skydiving in China.

但于音在跳伞上的成功不仅仅属于她自己。每当她代表中国人、代表女性创下一个新纪录，就给更多人带来鼓舞。“可以说五年前我跳伞的时候，就基本上没有见过中国人，”她说，“现在你到任何一个跳伞基地，每天都可以见到中国人的面孔。”她觉得自己见证和参与了跳伞运动在中国推广的历史。

However, it also makes Yu feel "restrained" and "having no choice except going on." More followers means more expectations, and more people are getting involved in the projects. Skydiving is no longer a loner's game to her. Now, she's even afraid to announce her retirement and get back to normal life.

可正是这一点，让于音越来越觉得“被架起来了”，“好像骑虎难下了“。因为追随者多了，大家的期待也多了，牵扯的人也多了。跳伞不复当年那份独行的潇洒。她甚至不敢说“不跳了，回老家买房结婚”这样的话。

"Quitting your job for skydiving, scuba diving or surfing, however wonderful it sounds, is not freedom. It's supposed to be something more sophisticated," she says. "It's like in Forrest Gump, where the protagonist is always running. One day he just thinks 'That's it,' so he stops. The fact that he's had hundreds of followers actually running behind him wouldn't alter his mind. Skydiving is the same. Jump or not, nobody deserves to know where you fly to. You are like a cloud in the sky, always having a pure mind."

“所以我说辞职去跳伞了，或者潜水了，冲浪了，哇好文艺，这种都不是自由。自由应该是更高级的东西。”她说，“有点像跑步的阿甘。突然有一天他不想跑了，就停下了，后面几十几百个追随者跟他没有关系。跳伞也是一样，你来你走，跳或者不跳，没有人知道。你就是空中的一朵云。这时候它才是纯粹的。”

But Yu doesn't want to stop now. She is planning to skydive in the Antarctic and the Arctic. Perhaps, someday in the future, she would achieve the freedom she's always wanted. 

不过，目前于音还不想停止，她正在策划去南北极的跳伞。也许某一天，她能在这个过程中重新找到自己想要的自由。

Director：Liu Xinyue

Editor：Ma Mingyuan, Gao Xingzi

Filmed by: Wei Yi

Designer：Qu Bo

Article Written by: Zhu Siqi

Copy Editor: Henry Weimin

Producer：Wen Yaru

Chief Editor: Pei Jian

Supervisor：Pang Xinhua

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