Ring Ring...it's Mt. Qomolangma!

Everest: Ready for the Torch

30 Reporters have reached the  Mt. Qomolangma (Chinese name for Mt. Everest)  media center ready to cover the Olympic flame ascent. Described as the "first media team" in the Chinese press, they are poised to cover the Olympic torch relay as it ascends the tallest mountain in the world.  The media center, built at an altitude of 5,040 meters (16,632 ft), was opened on April 2, Yang Zhanqi, an official with the Everest Olympic Torch media center advised on Monday.  Recall in an earlier post here, "Mt Everest Calling", I covered China Mobile's successful installation of 17 base stations and 22 repeaters on Mt. Everest, the highest being at 22,000 ft.

The first team consists of 19 Chinese and 11 lao wai (foreign) journalists. "It's a little bit tough all through the way here, but it is a high altitude, so I still need to take time to get used to it," said Ariane Reimers, a female reporter from the Beijing Bureau of the German ARD Television.     "It is about five thousand meters high, so I still have headache and sometimes could not sleep well in the past few days. We came a long way to reach this high so I really want to write some stories about the torch relay and the torch bearers. It is a great feat to build such a great media center this high and set up camps on the way to the summit. The mountaineers are wonderful," she added.

China Mobile is on Top of the World

The exact time for making the historic ascent has not been identified, perhaps for security reasons as much as the volatile weather conditions on Mt. Everest, but it is thought that sometime this month the torch relay will ascend Qomolangma. No doubt someone already is making calls from up there, with some great roaming revenue for CMCC.

Given all the coverage of the paid for ascents of Everest, one can only imagine whether the trail of demonstrations will lead to Qomolangma as well. I think not since this is Chinese territory. Look for media coverage of the event soon....