Everest 2008: The Olympic torch

[Mid]

Everest 2008: Chinese climbers delayed on Everest

The Chinese summit attempt is not expected to start from 8300 meters on April 28th. How much the Chinese are delayed appears to be a state secret. But summits are now not expected until May ..... As the Summit day moves back the pressure on South Side commercial guides will grow exponentially.

Everest 2008: The Olympic torch has arrived at Chinese Base camp. E
verest 2008: The Olympic torch is at Chinese Base

Clearly an April 28th summit will not happen. While climbers on the Nepal side of the mountain report the weather as good, the Chinese continue to talk of bad weather. Stay Tuned....

Earlier: The Chinese summit attempt is not expected to start from 8300 meters on April 28th. How much the Chinese are delayed appears to be a state secret. But summits are now not expected until May ..... As the Summit day moves back the pressure on South Side commercial guides will grow exponentially.

11 foreign journalists including Dolf Reist and the BBC have left to join 19 Chinese journalists headed to Everest Base camp.

Earlier: Climbers on the Tibetan side of Everest at 7500 meters. High winds. Ropes only to 7500 meters. A long way to go....

Earlier: March 15 Started to establish BC

March 31, mobile phone service in the region was on.

April 3, climbers, about 50 in total, started to move to ABC
Route to North Col had been cleared up, rope fixed. Hundreds of porters are now moving to higher altitude.....

The torch fire will be carried to and lighted up on the Top. 3 summit pushes was planned. The first bid might be from 8300M on April 28, depending on the weather condition

Earlier: The Chinese are widening and improving the road to Everest Base Camp for Spring 2008. Yes it will include asphalt paving on at least part of the road. While Environmentalists have expressed concern, commercial Everest operators and Everest climbers have not that we have heard of....

The plans will allow many "tourists" to visit Everest base camp and the possibly see the torch-bearers of the Olympic Games. The road frankly will make things safer, hotels are very unlikely...

It does appear the government still has to approve final plans, which appear to be moving ahead...

everestnews.com

[Mid]

Olympics-Media in dark as flame awaits Everest ascent
Mon Apr 28, 2008
By Nick Mulvenney

EVEREST BASE CAMP, China, April 28 (Reuters) - China was tight-lipped about the progress of a special Olympic flame up Mount Everest on Monday, despite the arrival of international media at the foot of the world's tallest mountain.

The ascent of Everest is the highlight of a torch parade that has been dogged by protests and counter-protests over Tibet on its journey around all five inhabited continents to raise the curtain on August's Beijing Games.

The Everest flame is separate from the globetrotting torch, which passed through the streets of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday and was due to be paraded in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

Determined that nothing will spoil this special leg, the authorities had only cryptic answers to questions on just where the flame was and when it would reach the Himalayan summit.

"I can confirm that the lantern with the flame is in the hands of the mountaineers but I cannot tell you whether there are climbers on the mountain yet," said Shao Shiwei, deputy director of the media department of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

"There is not only one flame, there are many flames," he said. "There are many back-up flames and they did not tell us which one is going to go to the peak. We are working with prudence because the whole world is watching."

The intended sending-off ceremony at base camp was cancelled last week because of inclement weather, officials said.

A delegation from China's General Administration of Sport has already toured Tibet -- where protests against Chinese rule erupted last month -- to check preparations for the torch's climb 8,848 metres (29,030 feet) above sea level.

"We have the confidence, sense of responsibility, capability and power to thwart any disruption and sabotage by hostile elements within and outside the country," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government, told the delegation, according to a report in the Tibet Daily last week.

WESTERLY WINDS

Since a day of Buddhist monk-led rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and ensuing protests by ethnic Tibetans in western China, foreigners have been banned from Tibet, and it was only last week that Chinese tourists were allowed back into the region.

The new 150 million yuan ($21.4 million) road to base camp on the Tibetan side of Everest runs along a route popular with trekkers, but it was deserted on Monday apart from the convoy taking foreign and Chinese media to cover the torch's ascent.

There were five security checkpoints along the 108-km (68-mile) road from the town of Tingri, but with one exception the checks were cursory.

There have been concerns that the desire for tight security was also putting the 11 foreign journalists at risk, forcing them to go from 54 metres (177 feet) above sea level to more than 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) in less than four days.

On Monday a Hong Kong television journalist travelling with the foreign media was forced to return to a lower altitude.

"After talking with the doctor, we have decided to send him back because of the altitude sickness," said Shen Kaiyun, director of the Everest media centre.

Although the weather on Monday -- blue sky with minimal cloud cover leaving the Himalayan peaks glistening white in bright sunshine -- was good for the camera, it was not ideal for mountaineering.

The clouds of snow being blown off the peak indicated that the westerly winds were too strong for an attempt to summit, according to Beijing Organising Committee official Sun Bin.

Sun, who climbed to the top of Everest last year along with 19 others in a test-run for the torch, said he expected the team to be able to summit in two days in perfect conditions.

($1=7.003 Yuan)
(Editing by John Chalmers)

in.reuters.com

[Texpat]

If they're caught in a vicious snowstorm and all the climbers perish near the summit, will they send a rescue team up for the flame?

How much extra fuel for the flame are they carrying?

Is there enough oxygen at that height to keep the flame alight?

Does the flame need it's own oxygen and would they sacrifice a sherpa to keep it going?

Can the flame holder double as a pick-axe?

So many questions for this important event.

[praxisist]

Yeah, isn't Hu Jintao grand? crazy dictator!

[Mid]

A mountain of ill will
LA Times[Tuesday, April 29, 2008 08:22]
By Bill Stall

China's push to carry the Olympic torch up Everest elbows other climbers aside.

The tarnished symbolism of the Olympic torch relays in London, Paris and San Francisco may seem tame beside the potential fallout of the Chinese plan to carry the torch to the world's highest peak, 29,035-foot Mt. Everest, on the border of Tibet and Nepal.

A century ago, John Muir, the prophet of the Sierra Nevada, wrote, "Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer." But there is no freedom on Mt. Everest right now, as the Chinese, with the complicity of a newly elected Maoist government in Nepal, have clamped severe restrictions and censorship on the usual spring rush to climb Everest and claim the ultimate prize of mountaineering.

The Chinese are promoting the torch climb as a symbol of sportsmanship and international goodwill, not to mention China's own vaulting ambitions. They devised a special torch to keep the flame burning at low oxygen levels, built a blacktop road through a wilderness to get it -- and the media -- to the base camp in Tibet, at 16,800 feet, and banned all other Everest attempts from the Tibet side of the mountain until the torch gets its chance between May 1 and 10, usually a window of calm offering the best climbing weather. Once anti-Beijing protests broke out in Tibet in March, they requested that Nepal shut down the south side of the mountain as well.

Sketchy website postings and occasional news reports indicate that as many as 500 climbers, Sherpas and others are on hold in the Nepal Everest base camp, at the foot of the Khumbu icefall at 17,500 feet. The camp is being overseen by a Nepalese army major under orders to confiscate all satellite telephones, computers and still and video cameras at least until May 10. Nepal has allowed climbing teams to carry food and supplies as high as Camp 2, at 21,000 feet, but until the torch climb is completed, they are prohibited from staying overnight there or climbing any farther. (There are four camps altogether on the South Col route, the route to the summit pioneered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in the first ascent, in 1953; teams acclimate at each one before attempting the next leg of the climb.)

The Associated Press reported late last week that as many as 25 Nepalese soldiers might be patrolling the bleak rock and ice of the South Col route. The report said the soldiers were given authority to squelch any protests of the torch relay or the Chinese oppression of the Tibetan culture. A Nepalese Home Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying the use of deadly force was authorized, but only as a last resort.

What do the Chinese fear? Obviously they do not want to reach the summit only to be greeted by a Tibetan flag or some other form of protest. And obviously they want to prevent any possible effort to keep their torch climbers from reaching the summit. Not that that would require the Nepalese army. Getting to the summit is iffy under the best of circumstances, and a James Bond attempt to waylay the Chinese team is almost impossible to imagine: Just breathing and putting one foot in front of the other at such heights is grimly arduous, even with bottled oxygen.

Protests farther down the mountain are another matter. Nepal has ordered climbers to play it cool: No flying of Tibetan flags, no mention of Tibet or China on a blog post or a YouTube feed. But mountaineers are a notoriously independent bunch who chafe at regulation. One unidentified American climber was expelled from base camp for possessing a pro-Tibet banner. (It's uncertain whether he displayed it or it was confiscated from his baggage.)

The Explorersweb Internet site, a go-to site for all kinds of mountaineering news, was suggesting last week that "climbers and explorers wishing to stage a protest for Tibet ... fly a Tibetan flag or write 'Free Tibet' on any feature in their surrounding (such as in the snow, on rocks, in the sand, etc.)" and send it in for posting. Commercial guiding companies, which get as much as $65,000 a person to attempt the peak, also post reports, but don't say much about the China/Tibet situation. China and Nepal together control commercial access to Everest, so the guides could risk future business if they were implicated in any action that angered the Chinese.

There is no assurance that the Chinese can stick to their May 1-10 schedule. Climbing on Everest is always subject to shifts in the weather, high winds, heavy snow and avalanche danger. Such was the case in 1996 when a sudden storm -- on May 10 -- temporarily stranded many climbers near the summit. Eight died.

Any delay in the Chinese climb would severely complicate logistics for those banned from climbing now in Nepal. One danger is that hundreds of climbers might be rushing for the summit all at once, once the south routes are reopened. Bottlenecks were another cause of the 1996 disaster.

With soldiers patrolling the climbing routes, communications blocked and all other climbs on hold, the Olympic torch climb is less a triumph of athleticism than a symbol of unsportsmanlike conduct -- an ill-considered stunt that scorns the spirit of freedom inherent in the quest for any mountain summit.

Bill Stall is a contributing editor to Opinion.

phayul.com

[Mid]

Everest 2008: US climber given 2 year ban and deported

William Brant Holland has been give a 2 year ban and has been deported from Nepal. Earlier: A US climber, identified as William Brant Holland, has been kicked off Mt Everest for having a pro-Tibet banner Flag in his bag. Mr Holland was apparently on the permit of Himalayan Guides (the Kathmandu company).

William was sent back to Kathmandu after the security at Everest Base camp found a pro-Tibet banner in his bag at base camp.

This could put other climbers in a very difficult position...

snip

everestnews.com


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Reporters arrive at Mt. Qomolangma torch relay media center
By Wang Wei

According to the Tibet Information Center, domestic and foreign media reporters with invitations arrived on the afternoon of April 28 at the Rongbuk Base Camp News Center to report on the Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest) torch relay.

Reporters reach Mt. Qomolangma media center

Headquarters of Mt. Qomolangma media center

The press base, situated at 5,045 meters above sea level, is no doubt the highest-altitude media center in the world. In the next few days, ten domestic media sources, including the China Tibet Information Center, the People's Daily and the China News Service, as well as seven foreign media sources, including Reuters and the BBC, will report on this grand event.

1st press conference at Mt. Qomolangmamedia center

Jiang Xiaoyu, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG), said that during the opening ceremony held in Beijing on March 31 to welcome the arrival of the Olympic torch into China and to mark the beginning of the torch relay, a separate flame had been kept in a lantern with the flame for the torch relay on the Himalayan peak.

Chinese and foreign reporters

Officials confirmed on April 27 that this lantern safely arrived at the Qomolangma base camp located 5,200 meters above sea level and that it was escorted by the BOCOG's flame security team.

The Beijing Olympic torch relay's Pyongyang leg successfully concluded on the afternoon of April 28. It has arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, capital of Vietnam, on April 29.

(China.org.cn April 29, 2008)

china.org.cn

[Mid]

High-tech ensures Olympic torch alight on Mt. Qomolangma
05-02-2008

The designers of the Beijing Olympic torch have handed a specially built torch and lantern to torchbearers at the Qomolangma base camp. The designers say their new technology ensures the Olympic torch will stay lit as it climbs Mount Qomolangma.

The torch's journey to the top of Mt. Qomolangma will be one of the highlights of the torch relay for the Summer Games.


An expert with a torch design lab under the China Aerospace
Science and Industry Corp. said at the Qomolangma Base Camp
on Wednesday that the Olympic torch can scale the summit
without sputtering out.
(Xinhua Photo)


To ensure the Olympic flame stays alight at the world's highest peak, the torch and the lantern used for the Qomolangma expedition are high-tech. They're capable of withstanding gale-force winds, low temperatures and even the oxygen-thin air atop the Mountain and they're also easy to handle.

Shao Wenqing, torch engineer China Aerospace Sci. & Industry, said, "We've trained torchbearers to use the torch and lantern two times in Beijing, and three times at the Qomolangma Base Camp. They'll handle it."
Designers have tested several times to ensure the torch stays alight in the oxygen-sparse conditions, that leave even experienced climbers struggling.

Torch fuel has traditionally been a mix of butane and propane that gives off a bright yellow flame without releasing toxins or thick smoke. But the flame inside the lantern for the Qomolangma relay is burning a solid substance, one portion of which can stay alight for eight hours.

On the world's highest peak, ferocious winds and temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius are the major obstacles to light the torch. But Chinese scientists have expressed full confidence that the torch will stay alight.

cctv.com


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China announces Everest Olympic torch relay team
May 2nd, 2008

Mt. Everest Base Camp,China Friday announced the squad that will carry the Olympic flame to world’s highest peak, the Mount Everest. The 50-member team consists of torch bearers, coaches, officials and other support staff, Chinese mountaineering team spokesman Zhang Zhijian told reporters at the media centre at the Mt. Everest base camp located at an altitude of about 5,040 metres.

He said the mountaineering and the supportive teams would include Tibetans too.

“The ascent is officially called the Beijing Olympics Torch Relay Qomolangma (Everest) Leg and the team is called the Chinese Mountaineering Team,” he said.

The 137,000-km relay has been billed the most ambitious of all time, topped with an ascent of the 8,848-metre Mt. Everest in May as the highlight.

thaindian.com

[bkkandrew]

^Here's hoping for a chill wind...

[Texpat]

Maybe there will be a Carrefour up there. They can stand in the parking lot and exchange handbag swipes over the right to stand erect wth a torch in their hand.

Wank protests.

[Mid]

Olympic torch to follow traditional route over Qomolangma
05-02-2008

The Beijing Olympic flame will follow the traditional climbing route up Mount Qomolangma. Olympic Torch Relay Center Qomolangma Operations Team leader Sun Bin confirmed the route on Thursday.


The Beijing Olympic flame will follow the traditional
climbing route up Mount Qomolangma.

The torch will start from the Base Camp at 52-hundred meters for the Advance Base Camp otherwise known as 'ABC' at 6,500 meters. It then climbs toward the summit past three more camps before reaching the peak of the world's highest mountain. Wind on the first day of climbing is the most important factor.

If all goes well, the Olympic torch will be atop Mount Qomolangma, also know as Mount Everest, within four days. The team of climbers includes several women.



Snow threatens torch Qomolangma ascent
05-04-2008

As the Olympic torch makes its way to the Chinese mainland, a sister torch and torch bearers are waiting at the Mt. Qomolangma base camp for the weather to clear on the world's highest mountain.

Mt. Qomolangma after snow

Heavy snow hit the area on Saturday. A weather service official says the mountaineering team might have to postpone their climb.

Officials say they are closely monitoring the weather changes, and awaiting forecast data from the meteorological center.

The Olympic torch relay includes a climb to the top of the 8844-meter Qomolangma, which spans Nepal and the Chinese region of Tibet.

cctv.com

[Marmite the Dog]

What's with this Qomolangma bollocks? It's called Mt Everest in English.

[Mid]

Olympic torch lit on top of Everest
By ANITA CHANG – 17 minutes ago

BEIJING (AP) — An Olympic flame reached the top of the world Thursday.

Live television footage showed a Chinese mountaineering team holding up a specially designed torch along with Chinese and Olympic flags Thursday on the top of Mount Everest.

"One World, One Dream," team captain Nyima Cering yelled as he was passed the torch on the final icy incline leading to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Beijing Olympics. "We have lit the torch on top of the world," another climber said.

Organizers hope the dramatic image of the torch atop Everest will counter some of the damaging publicity from protests during the international leg of the torch relay.

snip


In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, Norbu Zhamdu, left, lights the Olympic torch of the first torchbearer Gegyi with a kindling at the top of the Mount Everest, reaching the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak of the world's tallest mountain Thursday, May 8, 2008.
(AP Photo/Xinhua, Ngawang Chagxi)


In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, Chinese climbers, carrying the Olympic flame, display national and Olympic flags at the top of the Mount Everest, reaching the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak of the world's tallest mountain Thursday, May 8, 2008.
(AP Photo/Xinhua, Ngawang Chagxi)


In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, Chinese climbers cheer with the Olympic torch and flags at the top of the Mount Everest, reaching the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak of the world's tallest mountain Thursday, May 8, 2008.
(AP Photo/Xinhua, Ngawang Chagxi)


In this image made from television released by China's Xinhua news agency, Chinese climbers, carrying the Olympic flame, spurt to the top of Mount Everest at the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region Thursday, May 8, 2008. The Olympic flame launched the final assault on Mount Everest in hopes of reaching the top of the world's tallest mountain around Thursday midmorning, state media reported.
(AP Photo/CCTV via Xinhua)

ap.google.com


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Olympic flame reaches Everest summit
Press Trust of India
Thursday, May 8, 2008 (Beijing)



The Beijing Olympic flame reached the summit of Mt Everest on Thursday morning, marking high point of the torch relay.

The mountaineers celebrated the event at the 8,844 metre peak, the highest in the world, holding Chinese national flag, one of Beijing Olympics and another with Olympic's five-rings.

snip

ndtv.com

[bkkandrew]

The Beijing Olympic flame reached the summit of Mt Everest on Thursday morning, marking high point of the torch relay.

Clearly the Chinese are stupid or blind; can't they see that they are not at the summit? Its over there! On the left! No, wait, their higher ground on the right too!

Muppets............