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，他變身一個不知疲倦的組織者。他會用他那富有感染力的熱情認真處理任何與山有關的事情。他不是那種坐辦公室的料，雖然1983年他在桑德蘭理工學院取得了教育學學位，但隨后丟掉講師之職去登山了。但如果必須通過寫文書來保護并推廣各大山峰，他還是會去寫點什么的。[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]

他還主持了12年的英國登山協會，期間主要負責擴充會員，提高收入，安排賽事并寫一些備忘錄。該職一直持續到他忍不住從新投入到登山生涯中去。他還讓小學生（要知道他是如何在漢默史密斯的童子軍中接觸到登山的）和殘疾人有機會參與到登山運動中去。他還到國外傳授專業登山知識，比如教伊朗的年輕人如何爬山，教錫金邦的人如果成為像他一樣的向導；并且他還成了一名亞洲各大高山之間外交官，呼吁印巴登山者忘掉在錫阿琴冰川上的長期對峙。[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，他還不忘山上的人們，也給他們帶去了福祉。在他征服喬戈里峰（K2）的時候，他給兩處偏遠的村莊帶去了一對微型水利發電系統，該系統可用于無煙照明和制熱。雖然他從未到過喬戈里峰峰頂，但也沒白跑一趟。他還留心觀察氣候變化對喜馬拉雅山脈和阿爾卑斯山脈的影響。但他從未想過參與一次任何大型的裝備精良的登山遠征。他也不想涉足那些大眾青睞的山峰，亦或是吹噓自己征服了哪些六七千米的無名之山。[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，他并未進入最著名的登山者之列。人們初次聽到他的名字或許是這樣的：7月初，一場發生在穆迪峰上（位于勃朗峰附近）的一場雪崩奪去了他和另外8名同伴的生命。該雪崩由一塊斷裂的方冰引發。當時他正在引導兩個客戶沿一條眾人常走的路線行進；無論是道路還是天氣看起來都沒有安全隱患。那天他輕裝上陣，用他的話說就是“跟在辦公室里穿得差不多”。但他最清楚在山區是沒有絕對安全可談的。但他不想離開大山去別的地方，用拜倫的一句詩來說就是“山之所起，友之所在”。[qh]