世界上第一位獨自穿越南極的女性：我的孤獨之旅

When Felicity Aston started smelling fish and chips， she knew something was wrong. She must be hallucinating. After all， there are no pubs in the middle of Antarctica. The British explorer was skiing solo across the great frozen continent and had not seen another human being for weeks. “It drove me insane，” said Aston. “It was like I was skiing along a huge row of fish and chips shops， the whole day.” But， she says， she kept wiggling her fingers and toes to check for hypothermia， gritted her teeth and kept going， eventually crossing Antarctica in 59 days—becoming the first woman in the world to make it solo. Despite being a seasoned explorer—Aston previously led a team to the South Pole； raced across Arctic Canada and traversed the inland ice of Greenland —this was her first solo expedition. She says she has never felt so alone.

當菲麗希迪·阿斯頓開始聞到魚和炸薯條的香味時，她知道壞事了。她知道一定是產生幻覺了，畢竟在南極洲的腹地是不可能有酒吧的。這位英國探險家正獨自滑雪穿越這塊冰凍的大陸，她已經幾個星期沒有見過任何人了。阿斯頓說：“在一整天的時間里我好像是在滑過一長排炸魚店和薯條店，這種感覺讓我發瘋。”她說，她不停地扭動手指和腳趾檢查自己是否體溫過低，她咬著牙，堅持前進，終于用時59天穿越南極大陸——成為世界上第一位獨自滑雪穿越南極洲的女性。盡管作為一名有經驗的探險家——阿斯頓曾帶領一支探險隊到達過南極，穿越過加拿大的北極圈和冰天雪地的格陵蘭內陸——但這是她第一次單獨探險，她說她從未感到如此孤獨。

Being alone in Antarctic means being on a high alert all the time. There is a danger at every step： crevasse fields， whiteouts， sharp-edged grooves and ridges； temperatures below 40℃ and hurricane-speed winds. Among the many physical impacts this environment has on the body—exhaustion， malnutrition， frostbite， cramps， sunburn—one of the most serious is hypothermia. Among polar explorers， hypothermia is known as “the silent killer” because its first symptom is a progressive inability to think clearly， recognize the problem and do something about it. “The first warning signal of hypothermia is abnormal behavior—being very quiet， confused， incoherent，” Aston explained. These are things that other members of an expedition pick up on， but， in a team of one， theres no one else to raise the red flag. “If youre alone， you have to make sure that if something goes wrong you can get out of it，” she said. “I had to always make sure that I would be able to put up a tent and look after myself at the end of each day.” Thats why Aston constantly wiggled her fingers， to make sure they werent becoming numb， as the inability to use her hands would have been fatal.

孤身一人穿越南極意味著時刻需要保持高度的警覺。每前進一步都有危險：可能會遇見冰川裂縫、暫時失明、懸崖峭壁；零下四十攝氏度的氣溫，風速似颶風的大風。這樣的環境帶給人體眾多影響：疲憊不堪、營養不良、凍傷、痙攣以及皮膚灼傷等，其中最嚴重的是體溫過低癥。極地探險家們將體溫過低稱為“無聲殺手”，因為它最初的癥狀是人思維不清，無法意識正面臨的危險并采取相應措施。“體溫過低最先的癥狀是行為異常——人變得非常安靜，腦袋迷糊，語無倫次。”阿斯頓解釋。如果身在探險隊中，這些癥狀隊員互相是會留心的，但當孤身一人時，便沒有人會幫你留意。“假如你孤身一人，就得保證出了問題你有辦法解決，”她說，“我總是保證自己在每一天結束的時候能搭起帳篷來讓自己好好休息。……