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Wednesday, May. 07, 2008
Olympic torch nears Everest summit
The Associated Press
AP Photo
Chinese police officers stands guard as a Chinese boy with national and Olympic flags watches the Olympic torch relay from behind the locked gate inside the Sun Yat-sen memorial park in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. The Beijing Olympic Torch relay arrived in Guangdong, second province in mainland China.
BEIJING The Olympic torch moved to within striking distance of the summit of Mount Everest on Wednesday, with the flame likely to reach the top of the world's tallest mountain in the next several days.
A spokesman for the climbing team said a base camp at 25,560 feet had been rebuilt after heavy snowfall last weekend destroyed several base camps and delayed the assault on the 29,035-foot peak.
Beijing Olympic organizers are hoping the dramatic image of the torch reaching the highest spot on earth will make up for damaging publicity during protest-ridden stages of international legs of the relay.
The main flame will cross every region and province of China, returning to Beijing on Aug. 6, two days ahead of the opening ceremony for the games.
After a difficult weekend in the Himalayas, calm, sunny weather the last three days has lightened the mood surrounding the historic ascent, which is being conducted under heavy security in both Nepal and China - on guard against pro-Tibet activists.
"The snowfall several days ago had some impact upon the ascent. Now our climbers are busy fixing the damaged facilities," Zhang Zhijian, a spokesman for the climbing team, told Xinhua. "If the weather looks good all the time these days, I think I will bring you good news as soon as possible."
A 36-member team was announced Tuesday to take the torch to the summit, composed of 24 Tibetans and three women and led by Chinese alpinist Wang Yongfeng.
