China prepares for Everest Olympics stunt

Chinese mountaineers were today preparing to take the Olympic torch up Everest in what they hope will be a spectacular gesture for the Beijing games.

State-run television began the first of a series of live broadcasts from Everest’s base camp.

Mountaineers were completing a staging point at 27,390 feet for the final assault on the 29,035-foot summit.

But there was no word on the location of the torch, which mountaineers on the 31-member climbing team would go to the summit, their whereabouts and when they would scale the peak.

Still billed as a spectacular event in the buildup to the August games, the Everest climb is being given mixed treatment.

With the torch relay dogged by protests worldwide and events in Tibet drawing criticism after widespread anti-Chinese protests this spring, organisers have placed a premium on security.

The Everest torch, specially designed to burn in oxygen-thin Himalayan air, is a sister flame to the one that made its way around the world and today reached Hong Kong, returning to Chinese territory after a month abroad.

Organisers did not publicise the Everest flame’s travel to base camp over the past month, apparently to avoid protests.