Our team are on their way back down, slowly of course, after the events of yesterday. Our comms have not been great, so we’re reproducing our main story for your pleasure…. 

   By Nick Mulvenney

   EVEREST BASE CAMP, China, May 8 (Reuters) - A Tibetan woman took the Olympic torch the last steps to the top of Everest on Thursday, realising “a dream of all Chinese people”, but Tibetan exiles criticised Beijing for politicising the Games.
    “Long live Tibet!” and “Long live Beijing!”, the climbers, all wearing red, shouted joyously into a TV camera after unfurling the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo.
    The ambitious project to take the torch to the Himalayan peak was cast as the highlight of the relay ahead of the Games, which start in exactly three months’ time, and followed weeks of protests against Beijing’s rule in Tibet.
    “We have realised a promise to the world and a dream of all the Chinese people,” base camp commander Li Zhixin told reporters after being mobbed by jubilant friends and colleagues.
    Communist China has spent billions of dollars on staging the Olympics, eager to project the image of a modern and vibrant country. But protests during the international leg of the torch relay have bruised Chinese pride and provoked a surge of nationalist sentiment.
    Exiled Tibetan officials and rights groups said the Everest flame was in bad taste and not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.
    “During these times when the situation in Tibet is very grave and grim we felt it is very provocative to take the Olympic torch to the Tibetan side of the mountain,” said Thubten Samphel, secretary of the exiled government’s information department in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala.
    “The Chinese are suppressing the Tibetan people … it is not in harmony with the spirit of the Olympics,” he told Reuters.
    Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of Students for a Free Tibet, said in a statement e-mailed from New York: “Beijing’s conquest of Everest is a political move meant to reassert China’s control of Tibet.”
    Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950, and nine years later the Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising against communist rule. He is branded a “separatist” by China, but says he only wants greater autonomy for the region.

    “AGREED TO DISAGREE”
    Anti-Chinese protesters caused serious disruption to some legs of the main torch relay on its journey around the world after deadly riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and subsequent unrest in other Tibetan areas of China.
   Tibetan groups said they planned prayer vigils around the world later on Thursday to mourn those killed in protests in Tibet.
    China says a “Dalai Lama clique” was responsible for the disturbances in Tibet and protests over the Olympic torch.
   The Chinese state-run media this week accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of trying to blacken China’s name and prevent its rise, days after the two sides held a rare round of talks.
    However, an envoy to the Dalai Lama said Chinese negotiators had shown a willingness to engage with the Tibetan side during recent talks, despite major differences on important issues.
    “We agreed on few and disagreed on many … We agreed to disagree,” the envoy, Lodi Gyari, told reporters in Dharamsala. “These views were expressed in a frank and candid manner.”
    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his government’s attitude towards dialogue was “sincere”.
    “We also hope the Dalai Lama can show sincerity by taking concerted actions to truly stop separatist activities, stop plotting and provoking violent actions and stop disrupting the Beijing Olympics,” Qin told a regular news conference.

    EMOTIONS RUN HIGH
    On Thursday morning, five climbers, two of them women, staged the torch relay just shy of the world’s highest peak amid strong winds and minus-30-degree temperatures.
    “Beijing welcomes you!” and “tashi delek”, the climbers said — using a Tibetan greeting meaning “may everything be well” — after escorting the flame in a mini-relay to the 8,848-metre (29,030-foot) peak at the end of a six-hour climb.
    Beijing student Huang Chungui passed the flame to ethnic Tibetan woman Ciren Wangmu, who trudged the final steps unaided by oxygen to hold the torch aloft.
    That prompted jubilation among the reserve climbers, officials and a small team of journalists who had endured thin air at high altitude, sub-freezing temperatures and basic sanitation for nearly two weeks as they waited for the final ascent.
    The tent to which the live pictures were relayed from the summit was rent with cheers and tears, and several renditions of the Chinese national anthem echoed out across the Himalayas.
    The Everest climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge.
    Concerned that protesters would try to disrupt the assault on Everest, which sits astride the border of the Chinese region of Tibet and Nepal, China had effectively closed off the region and released only limited information to the media.
    The flame that crested Everest’s peak was taken from the main Olympic torch when it arrived in Beijing in March.
    The Beijing organisers paused the main torch relay, scheduled to pass through the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday, while the final push for the summit was taking place.
    The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid-June.

Pix from top: Members of the support crew for the Olympic torch relay team celebrate at Everest Base Camp. A replica Olympic torch is held by a member of the support crew. (Photos by David Gray). And, shoppers and residents watch the live coverage of the Olympic torch ascent to Everest shown on a huge television screen in Beijing. Photo by Claro Cortes IV.

Ed: We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage. Certainly the boys had fun up there, although they are now exhausted and are looking forward to a good rest. 

The Beijing Olympic torch is held aloft at the top of Mount Everest on Thursday in this image taken from television footage.

Three months to the day before the Games open, members of a 31-strong team reached the top of the 8,848-metre (29,030-ft) peak carrying the Olympic flame in a lantern before lighting the torch.

The climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge.

Take a look at Nick’s story about the moment so many Chinese have been waiting for.

But the trip is more than just another stopover on the Olympic torch’s journey around the world, read about the controversy and the deep symbolism surrounding the project.

Our Reuters team of Nick, Dave and Mark will be in touch with a us soon to give a personal account of today’s achievement.

You can also catch all the latest Olympics news at our website .

Pix: REUTERS/CCTV via Reuters TV.

If the word around camp is anything to go by, the final assault on the summit of Everest will begin in the early hours of Thursday morning. Journalists and accompanying officials have spent much of the day taking souvenir photos and snapping up post cards at the “world’s highest post office”.

The rumours would appear to be based on nothing more than collective will (or hysteria, perhaps).

A brief flurry of concern fizzed around camp when, after two days of clear skies, the wind picked up and clouds blocked our view of Everest.

This project is no walk in the park, though, as the climbers hanging around here are keen to emphasise.

But optimism remains that by mid-morning tomorrow, the mighty achievement may have been accomplished.

Dave and I will be keeping our fingers crossed. Mark, being a South African, is holding his thumbs.

China mountaineering team spokesman Zhang Zhijian details on a diagram the proposed route for the Olympic torch’s ascent of the world’s highest mountain Mount Everest, also known as Qomolangma. Photo by David Gray.

At an early press conference today the novel inclusion of information we hadn’t heard before briefly raised spirits in what has become quite a downbeat media camp.

As the weekend snowstorms destroyed the careful preparations the Chinese had made on the mountain and a second week in Tibet became an inevitability, there has been a lot of talk about going home. Not just from journalists, either. Many of the officials who travelled with us from Beijing or joined us at Lhasa airport barely attempt to disguise their low spirits any more. I don’t know whether the cause is the altitude, the cold, the increasingly predictable diet, the lack of showers or just day after day of telling news-hungry journalists that there is no news. One of the senior officials told me again today that he thought we were getting “closer and closer” to “our goal”, while another said he thought our fond farewells would not be not too far away.

Perhaps I’m clutching at straws.

Still, at today’s briefing, the full team of 31 Chinese on the mountain was listed so at least we have names, ages, sexes, and, quite interestingly, ethnic origins to flesh out the “climbers” we refer to in our stories. They are a bit more human now. The continuing good weather has also raised expectations that the end might be nigh. It’s quite windy down here but on the mountain, the tell-tale flag of snow coming off the peak suggests the wind is not too strong and is blowing in a westerly direction. A mountaineering official has told us that it is the east wind that brings snow.

So the hopes are high that they might summit on Wednesday or Thursday and we could all be off the mountain in time to celebrate Dave’s birthday with a few beers at the weekend.

Picture by David Gray

Well, we are still here. Invited as we were to cover this amazing event, we have been kept at the press centre located near Everest Base Camp for over one week now, and still we do not know the answers to a basic, important question  - Where is the Olympic torch now?

Frustrations are obviously still running high, and at 5200 Metres altitude, that frustration is unfortunately multiplied.

Sitting at breakfast this morning, the remaining foreign press contingent decided we would list the good things about our situation, rather than just dwell on the obvious annoyances. This is what we came up with:

1. The view……lets face it, it does not get much better than this.

2. The internet facilities…….the only reason why I am able to send my pictures, and now blogs, so easily is due to the excellent set up at the press centre. Plus, it allows us to watch repeats on YOU-TUBE of British comedies.

3. The food…..for make-shift kitchen facilities, the food is excellent, especially the dumplings.

4. The friendly staff who are trying to help.

But then we decided, it would only be fair, in order to uphold our roles as impartial observers, we would do a list of negatives as well:

1. Lack of information…..What’s happening up that mountain, Please??

2. The Huts…….sooooooo cold at night.

3. Altitude…….even though we have been ok so far, you can still feel the weight of the altitude on your head.

4. No showers……..been a week, hmmmmmmm, say no more…….

5. Toilet facilities………don’t even ask……..

6. Fresh clothes………yep, run out……well it has been 11 days….

7. Melting snow dripping through the roof…..right onto Mark’s head in fact, funny from where we were sitting.

8. The uncertainty of not knowing anything about what is happening…….

But after all these points, positive or negative, we must always think of the people who are trying to achieve this amazing feat. They are stuck on a mountain where the weather is easily ten times worse then where we are, and the effects of altitude are of course far greater. As far as the Reuters team covering this event are concerned, it makes us appreciate their efforts even more watching from what is in comparison a ‘measly’ height of  5200 Metres.

The foreign media contingent was moved from the huts to rooms inside the media centre late on Saturday evening, due to to the extreme weather. It was welcome, and much warmer. It seems it was by way of compensation for not taking us back to a hotel for a shower and a night in a proper bed, as we had requested. After the recent snow, the roads were apparently too dangerous.

One man who did get away was Joerg Brase of German television. Joerg had been suffering with high blood pressure ever since our arrival at the foot of Everest.

He decided that the risk to his health was not worth the story we might get if the torch does finally get to the top of the mountain.

The altitude effects nearly all of us. A slow walk up stairs will have all but the Tibetans puffing and wheezing like 20-a-day smokers.

Headaches are commonplace and sleep, even in the relative warmth of the inside of the media centre, is troubled.

Several of our contingent have had upset stomachs, not a pleasant experience at night when the latrine is a 100-metre walk (or dash) in the freezing cold.

I have felt sluggish and lethargic since we arrived here and, when writing, struggle to recall sometimes very simple words or constructions.

We do have the wonderful Dr Li, who roams around the camp telling us to drink plenty of water and to pace ourselves when working.

He also tolerates our frequent demands to use the machine he wears around his neck to test our heart beat and blood oxygen levels.

Today my heartbeat was 103, my oxygen a rather disappointing 81 percent. Dave was 97 and 86 (after hyperventilating before the test, the cheat), while Mark was an impressive 75 and 86.

Pix from top: Chinese border policemen take photographs of each other near their guard posts in front of Everest. And Buddhist monks and nuns feed yaks after a snowfall outside the nearby Rongbo Monastery. Photos by David Gray

I heard excited cries outside our hut this morning and the optimist in me immediately thought the climbers had reached the summit of Everest with the Olympic torch.

A warm bath, clean clothes and bedding were only a matter of hours away, I thought, as I poked my nose over the top of my sleeping bag into the icy cold.

Enthused by the prospect of the news, I slid out of my nylon cocoon, stepped into my boots and clad in little more than a ski jacket and long johns pushed open the cabin door.

The reason for the noisy excitement of our Tibetan hosts was immediately apparent as a huge clump of snow landed on my size 10s and a blizzard of white flakes obscured the medical tent which usually provides our outlook.

As with most people who have grown up in Britain, snow is a magical thing to me. Redolent of Christmas, snowball fights, evenings by the fire, a warming single malt and so on…

But here in the shadow of Everest, my immediate thought was that this would surely mean a delay to the climbers’ progress up the mountain.

My second thought was that snow melts and the holes in the cabin roof would soon be dousing us in ice-cold water.

I managed to my gear into the media centre before the drops turned into a dribble and within a couple of hours, our hosts had dispatched local men to wrap the huts in plastic sheeting.

Unfortunately, in the process of water-proofing my cabin, one of the hardy young mountain men put his foot straight through the recycled cardboard leaving a huge hole right over where my head usually lies at night.

Of course, whatever inconveniences we may be suffering down here pale beside what it must be like to be up Everest during a snowstorm.

Looking towards her (she is a she, I am told) through the snow storm, you realize once again that this is not a novelty fun run. People’s lives are at risk up there.

Pix from the top: What a difference 24 hours can make … see yesterday’s snap. Snow-covered yaks rest outside the Rongbo Monastery at the foot of Everest. And a kitchen worker sweeps snow off the roof of the make-shift dining room at the media centre camp. Photos by David Gray.

(Ed: Dave’s turn at the helm today. He, Mark Chisolm [cameraman and producer] and Nick Mulvenney [correspondent] travelled from Beijing on April 25 to Tibet to cover the Olympic torch’s ascent of Mount Everest.)

After travelling 4 days from Lhasa Airport, and spending 4 days at 5200 metres, we are all feeling the effects of high altitude but even more so, the frustrations regarding lack of information.

We are currently at a make-shift press centre located near Everest Base Camp. Facilities consist of an extremely good media centre, with amazingly fast internet, a press conference room, that doesn’t provide the media with any information (but I will get onto that later), small basic cabins that offer fairly comfortable beds but are just plain freezing, a dining room with excellent food, and last but certainly not least, the toilet block. Oh wow!! I cannot even begin to try and find the words … I will leave it at that.

The altitude is a major factor in everything we do. It affects each person differently. Some have a very low oxygen percentage in their bloodstream, some have a very high heart-rate, some get high blood pressure, many get severe headaches, others stomach problems. But all get breathless after walking just 20 metres, and all are very tired. But the effects of altitude are not consistent, and even somebody who has travelled frequently to and from high altitude react differently each time. So, the fact that the three of us have managed to feel OK after our schedule of travelling from Beijing, situated at a height of just 50 metres above sea level, to Everest Base Camp at a height of 5200 metres in just 4 days, does make us feel like we have achieved something, even before we have produced any stories (that’s not true the pix, stories and video footage are fab - ed). But this is not to say we are in the clear. Acute altitude sickness can hit anytime, even once you are back at normal levels, so we are extremely wary of this achievement.

The days consist of walking around the 500-metre cordon we seem to have been restricted to. Chinese border police keep a watch on our moves from several vantage points along the road and surrounding hills. I like to watch the changing weather patterns on the peak of Everest, but you cannot keep photographing it every hour - the weather might change but its shape doesn’t.

The nights are the toughest. The three of us share a small hut made of what looks like recycled paper shavings. Temperatures drop to around minus five degrees, down to maybe minus 15 with the wind factor, and the paper walls are just not thick enough to keep this cold out. But while I am freezing in my bed, all I can think about is how the teams on Everest must be feeling, camped on what some have called a ‘death zone’.

But getting back to what is easily the biggest frustration on this trip, the lack of information regarding the Olympic torch’s whereabouts. The most basic questions like ‘Where is it now’ and even ‘How many people are in the team taking it to the top’ are simply not being answered. The real shame is that all the good work that has been done regarding media facilities, especially the mobile phone coverage and internet, is being undermined by the lack of information.

And with the combining factors of lack of information, high altitude, freezing temperatures, no washing facilities and no date of departure confirmed, frustrations are high … almost as high as Everest’s summit itself.

Picture: Our intrepid trio catching some rays.  

ED: No word from the boys today (don’t worry they’re in good health, although the altitude is leaving them a little a breathless). So, here’s Nick’s story that went out on the wire…

    Climbers taking a special Olympic torch up Mount Everest were held up at advanced base camp on Thursday, awaiting better weather to reclaim glory at the top of the world after a calamitous round-the-world relay.
    Anxious to avoid a repeat of the anti-China protests that marred torch’s five-continent relay and preserve a moment of national pride ahead of Beijing’s August Games, China has kept the logistics and timing of the climb under wraps.
    Sun Bin, Everest project manager at the organising committee for Games, confirmed, however, that the climbers had reached the advanced base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain at around 6,500 metres (21,300 feet).
    He added that the wind would have to die down before an attempt was made to scale the final icy slopes up to the 8,848-metre (29,030-foot) Himalayan peak.
    “Normally there is a three to four day window of good weather in the first week of May,” said the former national climbing champion. “We want to try to catch this window to try and summit.
    “Strong winds are the worst conditions,” he added. “Last year, when I was at 7,500 metres the wind was so strong I could not move one step in half an hour. Beyond 8,000 metres, the wind will decide whether you can summit or not.”
    Despite the hope invested in the endeavour, Sun’s colleague, Liu Jian, did not think expedition leader Wang Yong Fung would take any chances with his team.
    “I think he will obey the rules of mountaineering,” said Liu, who with Wang and three others became the first Chinese to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents and reach the North and South Poles.
    The head of the meteorological office said on Wednesday that conditions would not be appropriate to summit until the weekend at the earliest.

    “IT’S NOT A JOKE”
    Sun, who said it usually takes four days to summit from 6,500 metres, successfully battled winds and temperatures of -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit) to conquer Everest last year as part of a test run for the attempt with the Olympic flame.
    His own experience illustrates that the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain are still an extremely hostile environment, with the threat of frostbite particularly acute.
    “For anyone getting to the top of Everest would be very exciting, but the reality is that it’s pretty painful,” he said.
    “I lost the feeling in my feet, I was really worried about it. I just wanted to run down so in the end I just spent about five minutes at the top.”
    Another reminder of how hostile Everest can be is a memorial park at base camp where mounds of rocks and plaques remember climbers who have died. Most of the bodies remain on the slopes.
    “To climb this mountain, you need to take it seriously. It’s not a joke,” said Sun, who said he had seen seven corpses above 8,300 metres.
    Sun, who has spent two years preparing the torch climb, said measures had been taken to alleviate the risks.
    “The north-east route is the most popular route on the Chinese side and it’s very familiar to the climbers,” he said. “They will have fixed ropes up the mountain, they will have the best logistic and information support. All the food and equipment will be carried by the sherpas.”
    Sun said the team was likely to summit around dawn.
    “If we can get the Olympic flame to the top, this would be my happiest time,” he said. “I’m praying for good luck for the climbers, for the Olympic torch relay and the Olympic Games, to have a great success.”

Picture: This is what it’s all about … the specially designed Olympic flame lantern that climbers will carry the Olympic flame to the summit of Mount Everest, also known as Qomolangma, is displayed at a news conference at Everest Base Camp in the Tibet Autonomous Region April 30, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA)

You’ll never guess who I met at Base Camp.

After a quick stop to watch the monks and nuns at the Rongpo monastery at prayer this morning, we finally got up to Base Camp proper this afternoon.

It was pretty bleak. Basically, a cluster of tents on an exposed rocky flat. It made us feel almost grateful for our humble cabins back at the media centre.

The views, as always, were a compensation.

I was trying to get a couple of basic facts from an official whose English was as good as my Chinese when we reached the point of non-communication.

I turned around to find someone to help me out with translation and found a willing soul who I assumed to be from the corps of Chinese media at the camp.

He translated and nodded in reply to my cheery “thanks mate”.

Next thing I knew, though, three Chinese women journalists were squealing like schoolgirls and posing for pictures with my interpreter.

Turns out this was Zhang Chao Yang, CEO of Chinese web portal Sohu and hero to China’s vast young army of netizens (couldn’t someone invent a new name for web users?).

Once we repaired to a nearby tent for tea, Zhang told me he was not only at base camp because Sohu was a media partner of the Everest leg of the torch relay, but also because he was a keen climber himself.

He has climbed a fair few mountains himself and been to 6,666m on Everest. He didn’t fancy going all the way to the top, though, because he thought it might damage the brain which has made his fortune.

I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if there were at least some celebrity involvement with this great adventure.

Ed adds: Our team have to tough it out for a few more days at Everest. You’d think by looking at the pictures the weather is lovely, right? Wrong. Apparently it’s blowing a gale up there, so at the very earliest it’ll be Saturday before there’s any action. Read Nick’s story.

And by the way, we’ve hit the 100-day countdown till the start of the Games. For all our Olympic stories, take a look at our website .

Pix from the top (l-r). Armed Chinese border police stand in formation at a camp near the base camp of Mount Everest, also known as Qomolangma April 30, 2008. Buddhist monks and nuns pray as they sit in the temple of Rongbo Monastery situated at the foot Everest. Yaks laden with supplies walk past the large camp for the Olympic torch’s ascent of Everest, also known as Qomolangma, in the Tibet Autonomous Region April 30, 2008. Chinese journalists taking it easy. And the Reuters team … Mark, Dave and Nick (tough job guys!: Ed). All snaps by David Gray.