作者，Alex Honnold
譯者，bince
轉自盜版岩與酒論壇
Dean Potter is one of the few people in sports history to have pushed the limits in multiple, widely disparate disciplines. Yet he saw his pursuits as arts and not as sport—himself as an artist not an athlete. He was a climber before the gym era, drawn to climbing by a love of the outdoors and a pursuit of adventure. It wasn』t about the physical act, and certainly not about the ratings or any other metrics applied to climbing. It seemed to be an inward journey or, as he often described it, a journey toward his fears.
Dean Potter 是運動史上那種罕見的，在不同領域都能多次突破極限的人之一。他認為他的追求是一種藝術而不是體育，而他自己則是一名藝術家而不是運動員。早在室內岩場普遍出現之前，他就作為一名攀岩者，出於對自然界的熱愛和對冒險的追求開始進行攀登。這種行為無關乎強身健體，更不是為了某種難度級別或是其他什麼攀岩的等級指標。這似乎更像是一種心靈的探索過程，或者，用他經常的描述：這是通往自身恐懼的一次探索。
We shared many of the same experiences, but they seemed to originate from wildly different motivations. When Dean soloed he was right on the edge and seemed to thrive there. A video of Dean free soloing Heaven (5.12d in Yosemite Valley) strikingly reveals that raw emotion: barely contained fear, or maybe just intense focus, or who knows what, really, as he sits at the base preparing. And then uncontainable joy when he tops out. Only he knows what he experienced for the 16 or so moves he made up that wildly overhanging crack.我們分享過許多相似的經歷，但動機似乎有相當大的差別。每當 Dean 在極限的邊緣獨自攀登的時候，他似乎得到了旺盛的活力。一個記錄了 Dean 徒手攀登 「天堂」（5.12d 優勝美地）的視頻驚人地揭示了那種原始的情感︰也許他勉強壓抑著恐懼，或只是極度的專註，誰知道呢，真的，從開始在地面的冥想，直到狂喜的成功登頂，只有他自己知道，那在極度仰角的的裂縫中完成的16個左右的動作意味著什麼。
And that』s probably the essence of Dean: doing things that no one else considered possible, experiencing things that no one had before and may never again. Dean authored extremely difficult crack climbs across the Utah desert and highball boulder problems in the Valley like the Wizard, an insane-looking jump start that never really gets attempted because it』s just too daunting. At the same time he was doing some of the longest wing-suit flights in the world and walking outrageous highlines, sometimes free solo, sometimes with a BASE rig, but always in the most beautiful places.這大概就是 Dean 的精髓︰做那些沒有人認為可能的事情，體驗那些空前甚至絕後的經歷。Dean 在猶他州荒漠創造了許多極端難度的裂縫攀登，以及峽谷中那些類似 「巫師」 這類高抱石路線，幾乎沒有人再次嘗試過 「巫師」 瘋狂的跳躍起步，只是因為它太令人生畏了。同時他還進行了一些世界最長距離翼裝飛行和驚人的高空扁帶行走，有時徒手攀登，有時會低空跳傘，但總是在那些最美好的地方。
This speaks toward his motivations: Dean was willing to take risks and pursue seemingly crazy goals because they were beautiful. He was the one who thought up the Moonwalk, an incredible short film by Reel Water Productions and Mikey Schaefer of Dean free soloing a highline on the summit of Cathedral Peak with an enormous full moon as his backdrop. The physical beauty of the places he performed inspired him to push further.
說到他的動機：Dean 願意承擔風險去追求看似瘋狂的目標，是因為這一切很美好。他是那個想要在月球上漫步的人，一個由 Mikey Schaefer 和 Reel Water 出品的不可思議的短片中，當 Dean 在大教堂峰的頂端進行無保護高空扁帶行走時，一輪巨大的滿月是他的舞台。正是他展現的這種自然之美激發他不斷地前行。
And yet he was also spurred by competition or a desire to be first—the same mundane things that motivate most people. He spoke often of trying to overcome his ego, yet it clearly was at play as he tried to break speed records or do first ascents. That competitive side seemed to come out a lot around Hans Florine, who he compared to an annoying dog humping his leg in the film Race for the Nose. They traded speed records on the Nose several times, and when Dean heard that Hans was aiming to be the first person to link up Half Dome and the Nose, he flew back to Yosemite and started the night before, so he could finish the enchainment first.他也被競爭或成為先驅的渴望所激勵——像那些激勵大多數人的目標一樣。他經常說起試圖超越自我，但這顯然是在試圖突破某些速度紀錄或爭奪某些首攀的時候。這類競爭的主要對手似乎是 Hans Florine，在影片 Race for the Nose 中，他在腿後掛了一隻討厭的狗以示區別。他倆數次交替保持著攀登 Nose 的速度記錄，而當 Dean 聽說 Hans 打算成為第一個連攀 Half Dome 和 Nose 的人時，他趕在 Hans 行動前夜飛回優勝美地搶先完成了這個目標。
Dean was the first person to link the three biggest walls in Yosemite, and at various times held many of the most coveted speed records in the Valley. But his exploits in Patagonia make the Yosemite climbs look small, including soloing the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre and a new link-up on Fitz Roy in a single season. Last May, less than two weeks before his unfortunate death in a wing-suit flying accident in Yosemite, he set the car-to-car speed record for running up Half Dome. It』s worth remarking how impressive it is for a 43-year-old alpinist/ aerialist/highliner to set a trail-running record on an objective as high-profile as this.
儘管 Dean 是第一個連攀優勝美地三大岩壁的人，並且多次創造了許多令人驚嘆的速度紀錄。但與他在 Patagonia 進行的，包括 Cerro Torre 的壓縮機路線的獨攀和 Fitz Roy 的單季連攀這些成就相比，優勝美地的攀登就不算什麼了。去年五月在優勝美地，在他因一次翼裝飛行事故中不幸去世不到兩周前，他創造了車到車的跑攀 Half Dome 的速度記錄。這是如此牛逼閃閃的一個記錄，作為一個43歲的攀登者/飛行者/高空扁帶玩家，是如何用如此高的標準創造一項越野跑紀錄。Dean』s biggest contribution to his arts might be the way he helped to subtly rewrite what』s considered normal. Speed climbing, simul-climbing, daisy soloing, even the big Yosemite link-ups are now much more common, partially as a result of his influence. Movies like Masters of Stone 5 and Fly or Die exposed people to ways of climbing that would have seemed insane if they weren』t seeing them happen before their eyes.Dean 對他的藝術的最大貢獻，可能是他巧妙地改變了什麼才是正常方式的觀點。速攀、同攀、獨攀甚至優勝美地大型連攀現在都更為普遍，部分原因是因為他的影響。如果人們沒有親眼看到像 Masters of Stone 5 和 Fly or Die 這些影片展現的攀登，他們會認為這是一些瘋狂愚蠢的攀登方式。
Dean learned from the climbing community and owed a lot to those who came before him. And then he climbed toward his fears and changed the perception of what was possible.
Dean 從攀登社區學習，並得益於許多前輩。然後他攀向他的恐懼，順便改變了人們對於什麼是可能的看法。— Alex Honnold
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