MOM! I'M CALLING FROM EVEREST!!!!

[olyclimber]

Sweet:

 

KATHMANDU (AFP) - A British mountaineer has set a world record by making the first mobile telephone call from the summit of

Mount Everest, taking the blessing -- or curse -- of the cell phone to new heights.

 

"It's cold, it's fantastic, the Himalayas are everywhere," Rod Baber said in the phone call from the top of the 8,848-metre peak early on Monday morning, according to a voice recording posted on his weblog.

 

"I can't feel my toes, everyone is in good spirits -- we got here in record time, it is amazing," said Baber.

 

His achievement was made possible by China Telecom, which has set up a mobile phone tower at base camp on the north side of the mountain.

 

While the Himalayas had been cherished as one of the few places on earth where you can truly get away from it all, the news has nevertheless been welcomed by those involved in the adventure business.

 

"It's good news because communications are essential in the mountains where climbers face huge risks," said Ang Tsering Sherpa, the president of Nepal's Mountaineering Association.

 

"The mobile coverage could help in rescue operations," he said.

 

The call is one of several high altitude stunts being carried out in the current Everest climbing season.

 

Last week a Briton pulled off the season's first big stunt by making the first flight over the summit using a powered paraglider.

 

A Nepali mountaineer has also broken his own world record by scaling the peak for a breathtaking seventeenth time.

 

Other daredevils on the mountain include Wim "Iceman" Hof, a Dutchman attempting to scale the peak wearing just shorts, boots, gloves and a cap.

 

This year, around 550 people are attempting Everest from both Nepal and via the northern flank in China.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070522/wl_uk_afp/nepalchinabritain_070522085615

[G-spotter]

txt msg frm smt?

[olyclimber]

Other daredevils on the mountain include Wim "Iceman" Hof, a Dutchman attempting to scale the peak wearing just shorts, boots, gloves and a cap.

 

WTF????

[ScottP]

]

Other daredevils on the mountain include Wim "Iceman" Hof, a Dutchman attempting to scale the peak wearing just shorts, boots, gloves and a cap.

 

 

Jump forward in time several months...

 

Edited May 22, 2007 by ScottP

[Bug]

Nope. He's wearing a jacket.

Probably slowed him down too much.

[Couloir]

At least he died smiling!

[tvashtarkatena]

 

[ScottP]

Nope. He's wearing a jacket.

Probably slowed him down too much.

I imagine you would quickly realize the folly of trying to climb Everest in only shorts, boots, gloves and a cap and beg, borrow or steal a jacket soon after starting out.

[catbirdseat]

So often in life what seems like a great idea doesn't turn out to be so great in practice.

[Bug]

....He said after losing his penis and testicles to frostbite.

[TREETOAD]

]

Other daredevils on the mountain include Wim "Iceman" Hof, a Dutchman attempting to scale the peak wearing just shorts, boots, gloves and a cap.

 

 

Jump forward in time several months...

 

Could the jacket be considered bootie?

[Jens]

Speaking of technology and everest was it today in the seattle times online I saw the photo of the basecamp lounge with a color flat screen plasma TV that was as big as in many local taverns? The article mentioned that everest climbers could lounge in comfort and safety accilimitizing while watching TV and being served drinks. It looked like the floor was carpeted.

 

[dmuja]

"...Embodying the high end at base camp this year is the "Tiger Dome," a white double-insulated structure that offers a cozy respite for members of the Himalayan Expeditions (or HiMex) team. Inside, HiMex clients can warm themselves near a wood stove, sip a cocktail, gaze out through transparent panels at a panoramic view of Everest, or sit on chairs and couches and watch movies on a widescreen plasma television...."

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003716805_everest22.html

 

 

Shut'r down for good, and ban that name from this board forever as well - the way "D*a*n* the man"s name has been expunged

[worldbfree]

i wonder if iceman would scale back to capri pants.

[olyclimber]

THIS IMPORTANT NEWS JUST IN!: OLDEST DUDE TO CLAMBER NEVEREVEREVEREST

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3221617&page=1

[jjd]

I want to be the first to climb wearing sneakers and bouncing a basketball all the way to the summit. Any sponsors?

 

While wearing a football helmet!

Edited May 29, 2007 by jjd

[Frikadeller]

I want to be the first to climb wearing sneakers and bouncing a basketball all the way to the summit. Any sponsors?

 

While wearing a football helmet!

 

Can I be your first sponsor? I'll give you Ten Bucks and an old sleeping bag... (that I used to screw my ex-gilrrfreind in on car camping trips... Imagine the memories in that bag!!)

[jjd]

[archenemy]

I want to be the first to climb wearing sneakers and bouncing a basketball all the way to the summit. Any sponsors?

 

While wearing a football helmet!

 

Can I be your first sponsor? I'll give you Ten Bucks and an old sleeping bag... (that I used to screw my ex-gilrrfreind in on car camping trips... Imagine the memories in that bag!!)

Great idea--he can be "Team Speedbag"

[Snide]

KATHMANDU (AFP) - "In some respects it has become a circus," said Elizabeth Hawley, a legendary Himalayan chronicler, who has been recording mountaineering feats in Nepal since the early 1960s.

 

"You had this man in shorts (Dutchman Wim Hof) and the other man with no arms (Norwegian Cato Pedersen)," said Hawley, referring to two of the more unusual climbers this season.

 

Tackling Everest has changed dramatically since "Miss Hawley," as she is known to the hundreds of climbers she has interviewed, began keeping records of Himalayan ascents.

 

"Back then it was climbers who knew how to climb. Some people who get onto these commercial expeditions can't climb at all," said the American, who has lived in Nepal for more than 40 years.

 

This spring season has seen more successful climbs than ever before.

 

Neither Hof, the half-naked Dutch daredevil, nor Pedersen, the armless Norwegian, reached the summit but hundreds of others, including a 71-year-old Japanese pensioner and a host of human guinea pigs, did.

 

Good weather conditions allowed unprecedented numbers to reach the roof of the world via the northern route from Tibet and the southern approach in Nepal, but the mountain still claimed seven lives.

 

A few weeks ago, Everest base camp in Nepal was a tightly packed, high-altitude village complete with a bakery, medical centre and a massage studio.

 

Now, the camp is deserted again and only a handful of expeditions remain in the Tibetan base camp on the northern approach.

 

The fast-moving monsoon that is sweeping across the sub-continent towards Nepal means that the ideal window for climbing will soon close.

 

At 71, retired Japanese school teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person ever to reach the top of Everest but he will not be doing it again.

 

"I am finished with the high mountains after Everest. We have many, many small and beautiful mountains in Japan and I plan to enjoy them slowly," he told AFP.

 

He said he did not set out to be the world's oldest conqueror of Everest.

 

"I was not aiming to set the record.... I was just trying my hardest not to die," he admitted.

 

Rod Baber, a British national, took the curse of the mobile phone to new heights when he made the world's highest ever call from a phone on the summit.

 

Baber's compatriot Bear Grylls had a "flight of dreams" when he piloted a powered paraglider over the peak.

 

It was not just foreigners who were breaking records this year.

 

Legendary Nepali mountain guide Appa Sherpa conquered Everest for a record 17th time, breaking his own world record in a feat that "did Nepal proud," the president of Nepal's Mountaineering Association said.

 

A British medical research team who carried out thousands of medical tests on trekkers and climbers managed to put 10 researchers on the 8,848-metre (29,198-foot) summit.

 

The Cauldwell Xtreme Everest Expedition, led by intensive care expert Mike Grocott, is seeking to discover why some people cope with lack of oxygen better than others.

 

The oddest summit bid was that of Dutchman Wim Hof, better known as the "Iceman" for his ability to survive extreme cold that would kill most people.

 

Hof set off wearing just shorts and boots, but an injury sustained while running a half-marathon in the Arctic earlier in the year forced him to turn back just 1,500 metres (4,950 feet) from the top.

 

Undeterred, Hof vowed he would be back next year when he plans not only to scale the mountain in his shorts but also to paraglide down.

[olyclimber]

Snide, can I suggest maybe that you take the torch for one-upping this guy? Climbing Neverevereverest in just a thongs (both underwear and footwear) would be taking it to the next level in my book. What do you think?