南極點：站在世界的盡頭

南極點：站在世界的盡頭

Standing at the end of the world, I have a combined, irrepressible feeling of joy and sorrow. It's a sense of fate that I seem to see the origin of the cosmos and its eventual death.

Bringing an ultrasonography of a friend's unborn baby, I take a picture with it at the South Pole.

站在世界的盡頭，有一種抑制不住的喜悅和悲傷，有一種強烈的宿命感，仿佛可以看到宇宙的初生和必然的死亡。

帶著朋友未出生孩子的B超圖片，我在南極點留影。

Above the ice sheet

At Cape Town International Airport in midsummer, a group of people with duffel bags and buff i n boots were very eye-catching. Five hours later, we touched down on the runway track NOVO in the east Antarctic.

Then began our polar life in the Antarctic. We call all the houses in the campsite “pods”. Besides our lodgings, there were also a bathroom, a kitchen, a restaurant and a lounge. The lounge provided heating 24 hours a day. In our leisure time we could even be sat here reading and drinking in T-shirts. In such circumstances, everyone gets used to life without keeping track of time, without lights, TV, cellphone and Internet. The electricity in the room could only provide heating for one bed. There was no running water for us, so we had to bring two thermos bottles of water back to our rooms. However, we had warm beds, we could pull aside the curtain to have a sunbath even at 3 o'clock in the morning and we could lie in bed listening to the sound of strong Katabatic wind everyday. In our spare time, we explored around the our expedition base camp with crampons, backpacks and harnesses. From the glacier terminus around the campsite we could climb up to the ice sheet to see the endless Antarctic ice. We climbed together over a hill to see the ice wave, where ocean meets exposed rocks, and the two worlds of the Antarctic are fused. It seemed that the turbulent world is frozen in time.

This is the purest place on this planet, with the Antarctic Treaty and its related rules setting very serious regulations for environmental protection for all the activities conducted here. All personal belongings must be scrutiny twice; before getting off the plane everything which has touched ground before such as shoes and trekking poles, must be disinfected. In camp washing is not allowed, and there are strict rules about how human waste is removed.

All these rules and regulations only make sense to those that have visited this magical place.

居于千米冰層之上

在盛夏的開普敦國際機場，一群拖著大堆馱包，背著羽絨衣和極地靴的人回頭率是百分百的。5個小時后，我們降落在東南極的NOVO冰跑道上。

在南極內陸的營地生活開始了。我們把所有營地的房子稱作“Pod”豆莢小屋。除了住宿的，還有衛生間/浴室、廚房、餐廳、Lounge。Lounge是24小時不間斷供暖的。舒適的閑暇時間，甚至可以穿著T恤來這兒看書喝茶。在這樣的環境里，不出兩天，每個人都會習慣不用看時間，不用電燈，沒有電視、沒有手機、限速網絡的生活。房間的電加熱只能暖一塊床的區域，沒有管道供應水，每天晚上要提兩個熱水瓶回房間。然而，這并不防礙它成為世界上最奢侈的旅行地之一。在這里，可以半夜3點拉開窗簾曬太陽，可以在純凈的冰蓋上享受香檳、生蠔的午餐，可以躺在床上聽每天準時到來的Katabatic狂風。

閑暇的時候，我們帶著冰爪、背包、安全帶，每天去營地的周邊探索。從營地的冰川末端登上冰蓋，看一望無際的南極冰原。我們一起爬一座山去看Ice wave，那里是大海、裸露巖石和南極大陸冰蓋交匯的地方，仿佛看到一個洶涌的世界在某個時刻突然凝固。還有一次，我們真的進入到Ice wave之中，從幽藍走到紫色，沒有恐懼，只有寧靜。

這是這個星球上最純凈的地方，沒有之一。南極條約及其周邊規范對所有南極的行為設定了極其苛刻的環保要求。所有的個人物品必須經過兩次檢查；在飛往南極的機艙門口，每個人的鞋底、登山杖等接觸地面的地方必須消毒；營地不能洗衣服，每個人都必須嚴格按照個人裝備列表準備自己的衣物；排泄物和廢棄物中，除了尿液可以留下外，其余的都必須從哪兒來回哪兒去。

所有這一切，只有來過這里的人才能理解。

Who's the real host?

In Antarctica there are people from lots of different countries. Besides scientists with their research, there are many people whose job it is to keep the place running, clean and functional.

One of our guides was more than 50 years old, and he had been guiding since he was 28. He had traversed several times through the Antarctic continent, Arctic ocean and Greenland without mechanical power. An astronomer in the research station shared his research on the moon and stars. He talked about it for more than an hour, and I begun to understand the problem: human activities have brought irreversible changes to our planet. Particulate matter (PM2.5) in the Antarctic is close to zero, but in other parts of the world where PM2.5 is often the biggest concern, here it is the Ozone hole. The hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic is getting larger, and without ozone sunshine can actually be lethal. It's alarming that our use of a fridge many thousands of miles away can have such a big impact on the environment here.

My German teammate always told us all about the emperor penguin. It's the largest and heaviest species of penguin in the world, and also the only penguin that breeds in winter in the Antarctic. In the Antarctic, when observing any wild animals, there are more strict rules to avoid disturbing them. Unless the penguin comes to you itself, you have to observe it from at least 15 metres away. When you observe them, you need to squat or even bend over to keep at the height as the penguins. Any forms of contact with the penguins areprohibited, because we potentially carry many bacteria and diseases which could kill them.

What's the end of the world like?

After 7 hours fl ight, we fi nally arrived at our destination. After took pictures around the South Pole monument, we kept moving following the GPS, until the fi gure turned to “S90”, we had reached the end of the world, the Geographic South. Pole! People always try to remember their moment there. Some will stand upside down at the monument to show they really reach the “bottom of the world”; some will just walk around passing through all the times zones around the world in just a few steps.

Some people get there with their loved ones picture.With great honor for me, the picture I took to the end of the world was my friend's unborn baby's B ultrasonic image.

Life is not only pots and pans, maybe sometime we need something extreme to reignite our desire.

誰是真正的主人？

在南極大陸上可以看到各種各樣的人，他們來自不同的國家，除了少數科學家外，其他人都干著一些普通的工作。

我們的一位向導小迪今年50多歲了，從28歲開始成為極地向導，已經不依靠任何機械動力，多次穿越南極大陸、北極地區和格陵蘭?？瓶颊镜囊晃惶煳膶W家在狹小又堆滿了各種儀器的工作間里，用生硬無比的英文跟我們分享了他研究的月亮和星星們。他說了一個多小時，有一點我聽懂了：人類活動給這個星球帶來的影響是不可逆的。南極大陸上的PM2.5幾乎就是零，但和我們每天看PM2.5指數一樣，這里要看的是臭氧層空洞的大小。南極上空臭氧層的空洞一直在擴大，沒有了臭氧，陽光對于人類就是致命的。想到我們遠在千里之外用冰箱就能影響到這里的生存環境就不寒而栗。

我們的德國隊友不斷告訴我們：Emperor penguin，是這里的Emperor。它是世界上最大最重的企鵝，是唯一在南極的冬天繁殖后代的企鵝。他說，這里是帝企鵝的家。在南極，看任何野生動物都要遵守一套嚴格的規定，除非是企鵝主動走近，否則最近觀察距離是15米。觀察的時候要蹲下甚至趴下來，盡量保持和它們差不多的高度。對于企鵝來說，人類只是另一種企鵝。任何觸碰企鵝的行為都是禁止的，以它的角度看，你的身上爬滿了各種可怕的外星生物。

它們才是這里的主人，我們只是一些不請自來，自命不凡的訪客。

世界的盡頭是什么樣子？

從營地出發，經過漫長的七個小時飛行和一次降落加油，我們終于到達目的地——地理南極點。 在南極點紀念標志前拍照，拿著GPS繼續向南，當讀數變成S90的時候，就是世界的盡頭了。

人們會以各種方法在這個地方紀念一番。有人會在地理極點紀念標志上倒立，以展示自己真的到達了“bottom of the world”；大多數人會用各種方式繞著南極點走一圈，嘗試用最短的時間走遍全球所有的時區（所有經線都在此匯集）。

很多人帶著自己最愛的人照片來這里。特別的是，我帶著的是朋友未出生寶寶的B超照片。

在平凡生活外，有時候，生命需要一些極致的東西，讓心靈被深深地刺痛。對于一些人來說，這種感覺可有可無，對于另一些人來說，那是生命的最高意義。

THE FLIGHT TO THE ANTARCTIC

飛行在南極

1. The flight to the Antarctic Interior

Route: from Cape Town, South Africa to the expedition base camp at 90km away from the southeast pole coast.

Aircraft Model: Illyushin IL-76 military transport aircraft

Features: Designed to be rugged and to operate in extreme polar weather conditions.

2. The flight to the South Pole

Route: From the expedition base camp to 90 degrees south takes7 hours, and needs a stop for refuelling on-route at 85 degrees south.

Aircraft model: Basler Turbo 67

Features: Designed and especially equipped for Antarctic conditions.

1.飛往南極內陸

飛行線路：從南非開普敦出發，到達深入東南極海岸90公里的營地。

機型：伊爾76軍用運輸機。

特點：堅固耐用，能在極地極端氣候條件下工作。

2.飛往南極點

飛行線路：從營地飛到南緯90度需要八個小時，其中要在南緯85度的地方降落加油。

機型： DC3。

特點：功勛級的機型，極高可靠性，耐用性和安全性。

SOUTH POLE: STANDING AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Text&Photos by Neil (李純剛, 極地向導，萬達國際旅行CEO) Translation by Bianjiajin

只有乘坐飛機才能到達南極內陸和南極點