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Cellphones on Mount Everest

by Evan Shamoon on May 14, 2007 at 08:14 AM

Cell Phones on Mount EverestIn an interesting fusion of "man versus nature versus technology versus pointless narcissism", a British climber named Rod Baber is about to set a world record for the highest mobile call. Baber is to scale Mount Everest and make the call from its north ridge.

A recently-installed base station in nearby China has line-of-sight to the north ridge of the mountain, which has made a mobile call from the top of Everest possible. Overall improved phone reception in the Himalayas is due no doubt to the Chinese Army that's camped at the Everest base camp. The army is making preparations to take the Olympic torch to the summit for next summer's games in Beijing.

The expedition will begin its final push on May 15th and aims to reach the summit about eight days later.

Just think, now you'll be able to take work calls from the world's highest mountain!

From The BBC

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