《Rock And Ice》杂志专栏：自由攀登者，真的自由过吗？
编者按：早在撰写《首登之争：偷登、秩序与登山精神的消亡》一文之前，为了更平衡的客观视角、避免过于主观的个人观点，我请教了我的老朋友，美国著名攀登杂志《Rock And Ice 岩与冰》的总编辑Duane Raleigh：到底什么是首登？你们（北美攀登圈）怎么看？
我料想到，《首登之争》一文发布后，很多人断不会听进理性的声音。那么，再无理取闹，美国主流攀登界的观点你总该相信了吧？在后续《什么才是首登？他们这样说......》一文中，我又进一步阐述、回复了部分混淆是非的观点，也呈现出更多读者精彩的表达。
在评论中，一种更消极的想法是，主张相安无事、各自站队。这种观点看似在拉架，实则搅浑水。这种没有独立思考能力的墙头草行为，本质上就是对客观事实的蔑视。你可以没有任何表达，但在心里不能不思考。
同时，此刻中国大地上发生的首登故事，也引发了《Rock And Ice》这本美国老牌攀登杂志的强烈关注。编辑部索性跟我约篇专栏，不定期更新。跟美国登山者聊聊这个故事，也聊聊中国登山者的故事。于是，也就有了这篇精华版的首登之争。
某一天，我也会将欧美读者的反馈整理成一篇文章发布出来。但我更想将中国登山者或户外爱好者的声音传播出去。在往后的时日中，我会继续潜入民间，出入岩馆或高山，与默默无闻的你聊聊天，将我的观察、理解和思考输出成文，让全世界的人看到。
本文首发在《Rock And Ice》杂志特刊《Ascent》。这篇小文本身也卷入进美国户外运动媒体的洪流之中。那里，正发生着一场改革和剧变。
早在今年年初，包括《Outside》、《Rock And Ice》、《Climbing》、《Trail Runner》在内数十家大大小小的户外运动类刊物，陆续被美国 Pocket户外传媒集团收购整编。之后，Pocket户外传媒集团摇身一变，正式更名为Outside户外传媒集团。他们想打造一个综合线上流媒体、线下纸媒刊物的户外运动默多克传媒帝国。
《Rock And Ice》杂志，亦或是在美国主流媒体也颇具话语权的《Outside》杂志，在这次资本收购、吞并的商业行为中，显得微弱许多。纵然要以舍弃部分品牌历史和价值观为代价，但他们更需要抱团取暖。
每家户外类杂志内部都在经历一系列的改版，甚至是改革。内容上，视觉上。改版后的《Rock And Ice》每年五刊，分为春、夏、秋、冬和年度特刊。
2021《Ascent》作为《Rock And Ice》杂志的年度特刊，恰好就是改版后的第一期。这周刚刚面世。我的这篇《Un/Freedom Of The Hills》，也是杂志上的第一篇故事。"Un/Freedom"是符号视觉上的双关：被称为自由攀登者的群体，真的自由过吗？也许是，也许不是。
为表敬意，英文版在前，中文版在后。如果你看过《首登之争》，其实不必浪费时间再阅读这个精简版。我更建议你看看本公众号里其他的故事。
最后，愿我们对所有美好事物中不息的力量，怀有信念。
Un/Freedom Of The Hills
WHAT IS A FIRST ASCENT?
IN CHINA, PERHAPS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
By Mingwei Song
LAST YEAR A MOUNTAINEERING TEAM applied for a permit from the Sichuan Mountaineering Association (SMA) to attempt an unclimbed peak in Sichuan province, an area in southwest China. The SMA is the local branch of the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA), and is the governing body for mountaineering in the province. With easier access, more technical routes and more unclimbed mountains than Tibet itself,Sichuan sees thousands of climbers, including guided clients, every year. But without a permit, we can’t legally climb any peak over 11,500 feet here, and a new regulation states that unpermitted first ascents won’t be counted as first ascents.
Upon receiving its permit, the team summitted the unclimbed and unnamed 17,500-foot mountain, and a few days later in November posted the first-ascent certificate issued by the SMA. They also posted a photo of the team headed towardthe summit. Visiblein the image was a three-foot-high Mani, or Tibetan, prayer stone. For most travelers and climbers in Sichuan and Tibet, Mani stonesare familiar, found atop many summits. The discovery of the Mani stone on the summit reminded me of the finale in the 1991 movie Cerro Torre: Scream of Stone by Werner Herzog, where two climbers compete for the peak’s first ascent only to find a photo of Mae West on the summit.
If a Mani stone was on the summit, placed by a devout local Tibetan an unknown time ago, how could the climbers claim a first ascent, and why was the earlier ascent ignored?
The issue quickly becamea hot topic within the Chineseclimbing community, some of whom joked that the Mani stone must have been a natural feature. The debate heated up to the point that the SMA stepped in and issued a formaldefinition of first ascents. They stated that because climbing is a modern sport, and to promote mountaineering, only permitted first ascents would be recognized. According to the SMA, a first ascent now has to be confirmed by officials. If no permit, no confirmation, no recognition.
In the broader community, free-spirited Chinese climbers don’t really care about official opinions. For them, if you are the first to succeed on a climb, it is considered a sort of heroic act regardless of whether you had a permit.
The back story is that applying for a climbing permit in China is complicated and expensive. The local mountaineering association has given no set cost to registerfor unclimbed peaks,meaning they can set their prices at will. If you have a good relationship with the association, the price can be a few hundreddollars. If you have no relationship with them, an unclimbed peak could cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The consequences for climbing without a permit can be grave: Most insurance will not cover illegal acts. Get in an accident, and your family will have to pay for the rescue. This has happened.
Mainstream media also ignores climbs done without permits, regarding them as common criminal offenses, and in general considers climbers selfish risk-takers who are ignorant of the world. The media shapes the public’s image, and climbers don’t make a positive impression in current China.
Yan Dongdong was a climber and writer who translated several books on mountaineering into Chinese. In 2009 he and Zhou Peng climbed a new route on Yaomei Feng, one of the four summits of Mt. Sigunian, in fast alpine style. Standing 20,505 feet, and Dongdong’s ascent, the first made in such style by a Chinese climber, made him famous. Dongdong ascended dozens of unclimbed peaks and broadened the horizons of Chinese climbers before he died at age 28 while descending an unclimbed peak in Xinjiang in 2012.
Dongdong was an idealistand used his platform to shine a light on the issues within China’s mountaineering bureaucracy. In 2009 he wrote that the local mountaineering association “keeps cracking down on illegal climbers, while refusing to lower the high standard of climbing licenses,” and had “strangled the mountaineering economy in many places, as well as the rising mountaineering culture in China.”
Chinese climbers cherish the memory of Dongdong, partly for his climbing style and achievements, but mostly because he sought to live as freely as possible in a country where life is stressful. No one else has done anything like this in Chinese climbing circles, but he represents a kind of hope.
This hope is not only about a more free lifestyle, but perhaps, for Chinaclimbing. Dongdong’s freespirit continues to influence Chinese climbers. If they want to climb,then they will climb,and they believe that the best part of a first ascent is the joy of standingon a summit for the first time in human history.
Yet they also may care about recognition. If we think of climbing as art, consider that a film, a painting, or a work of music can only be recognized as “great” if it was created with permission—otherwise no oneever sees or hears it.
Just imagine someone succeeding on an unclimbed peak or route without a permit. A few days or years later anotherteam makes a legal ascent of the same climb. The true pioneers will be lost to history, while the climberswho repeated the climb are recorded and celebrated for the first ascent.
Hopefully this article will have climbers aroundthe world understanding what is happening in China.
The SMA defined first ascents to impose order on what they perceived as disorder. However, their regulations have instead created chaos and the climbing community considers it a declaration of war. In Sichuan there will now be legalfirst ascents, and there will be true first ascents.
_________
Mingwei Song is editor in chief of the Chinese magazine Outdoor.
无名之丘：
何为首登？在中国，或许并非如你所想
去年，一支登山队向四川登山协会（川登协）申请了四川境内一座未登峰的攀登许可。川登协是中国登山协会的地方分支机构，也是是四川省登山运动的地方管理机构。与西藏很多山峰相比，四川的山峰更容易到达，更具技术性，也蕴藏着更多未登峰资源。每年都有成千上万的登山者来到川攀登，其中不乏许多商业登山客户。但在这里，未经批准，擅自开展海拔3500米以上山峰登山活动属于违规行为。
一项新的规定宣称，未经许可的首登，不算作首登。
在获得登山许可后，该登山队登顶了这座5350米高、未被命名的未登峰。几天后，11月的某天，登顶队员网上发chu 了川登协颁发的首登证书。他们还贴出了登山队攀登至峰顶的照片。照片中，清晰可见一座三英尺高的玛尼堆，即西藏地区祈祷用的石堆。对于四川和西藏的大多数旅行者和登山者来说，玛尼堆并不陌生，在很多山顶和垭口上都能看到。未登峰顶的玛尼堆，让我想起了1991年沃纳·赫尔佐格电影《塞罗·托雷：石头的尖叫》的片尾结局。在电影中，两名登山者竞逐山峰的首登，却在山顶，发现了女星梅·韦斯特的照片。
既然不知何时起，一名虔诚的西藏信徒就在山顶堆了一座玛尼堆，那么后来的登山者又如何能宣称这次攀登为首登呢？为什么先前的那次攀登被他们无视了？
这一事件很快在中国登山界传得沸沸扬扬。一些人开玩笑说“玛尼堆一定是个自然景观”。争议不断，以至于川登协介入，并正式定义了“何为首登”。他们表示，因为登山是一项现代运动，为了推广登山运动，只有合法的首登才会被认可。根据川登协的说法，首登必须得到官方的登顶证书确认。如果无登山许可，就没有登顶证书，也就没有首登认可。
然而，在中国的民间登山群体中，自由攀登者可并不在乎官方的看法。对他们来说，如果你是事实上的首登者，不管你有没有许可，这都是一种英雄主义。
故事背后的实质是，在中国申请未登峰许可证，流程既复杂又昂贵。地方登协没有规定过未登峰的注册费用，这意味着他们可以随意规定价格。可能是几百美元，也可能要动辄数万美元。
偷登的后果很严肃：大多数保险并不承保非法或违规行为。如果在偷登过程中出事，自己的家庭就得承担救援费用。在过去，已经发生过类似的案例。
主流媒体也大多无视这种非法攀登的实质，他们往往认为这是一种普通的违规行为。在公众的普遍印象中，登山者就是自私的冒险者，对这个世界一无所知。而主流媒体又进一步塑造了登山者的公众形象。在当今中国，登山群体可并没有给公众留下什么积极的印象。
严冬冬是一名自由登山者和自由撰稿人，翻译过几本关于登山书籍。2009年，他和搭档周鹏以阿式风格攀登了四姑娘山幺妹峰上的一条新路线，并借此一战成名。这是中国早期经典的阿式攀登案例。2012年，28岁的严冬冬在新疆攀登一座未登峰时遇难，在此之前，他已攀登了十几座未登峰，并拓宽了中国登山者的视野。
冬冬是一名理想主义者。他用自己的方式，让人们看到了中国登山机构的内部问题。2009年，他写道，地方登山协会“一方面严厉打击偷登，另一方面又不肯放低甚至进一步加高审批注册的门槛”，并“扼杀许多地方的‘登山经济’，以及在国内刚刚发展不久的自由攀登运动。”
中国的登山者怀念冬冬，部分原因是他的登山风格和攀登成就，但更主要的原因是，他希望在现实的社会生存压力中，尽可能寻找自由的生活。在彼时的中国登山圈里，还没有人做过这样的事情，但他代表了一种希望。
这种希望，不仅仅是关乎一种更自由的生活方式，或许对于“中国登山”来说也是如此。冬冬的自由登山精神继续影响着中国的登山者。如果他们想攀登，他们就去攀登。他们相信首登的最大乐趣，是在人类历史上第一次站在顶峰上的喜悦。
诚然，中国登山者也希望获得认可。如果我们把登山当成一种艺术，那么任何一部电影、一幅画作或是一曲音乐作品，且只有在被允许的情况下才会成就其“伟大”——那定不有人会欣赏到它。
想象一下，某人在没有许可的情况下完成了未登峰或新路线。几天或几年之后，另一支队伍合法地攀登了同样的山峰。真正的先驱会消失在历史的洪流中，而那些反复攀登的登山者则会名留青史，并庆贺自己的“首登”。
希望这篇文章能让世界各地的登山者明白，此刻中国登山界正在发生的事情。
川登协定义了首登，他们想在无序中赋予一定的秩序。然而，他们的规定，反而造成了混乱。这更像是一纸檄文，将四川的首登分成两种情况：合法的首登，以及真正的首登。
山岳文学