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Net cafe for Everest base camp
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Fifty years after two men conquered Mount Everest, a native Sherpa is setting up what will be the world's highest Internet cafe. The project at the 5,300-meter (17,400-foot) base camp of the world's highest mountain is also likely to be the toughest Internet cafe to be set up. Besides freezing temperatures and storms, there is no electricity, plumbing or permanent structures at that altitude. "The Internet cafe I am planning will be in a temporary shed built with stone walls and covered with a tent," Tsering Gyalzen told The Associated Press. The cafe will operate during the spring and fall, when hundreds of mountaineers come to climb Everest and surrounding mountains in the Khumbu region. Gyalzen said he is forced to build a temporary structure because the whole base camp stands on a huge, unstable glacier that moves a few centimeters (inches) every day. ChallengingSo he is building a hut in the Kalapathar area, about a two-hour trek from the base camp, for the satellite equipment that will transmit signals through radio links to the Internet cafe. "There are 19,000-to-50,000 trekkers that come to the Everest region every year. They would want to send a line of e-mail to their friends and family back home," Gyalzen said. He expects to install eight laptop computers, powered by generators and solar-charged batteries. "It is a very a challenging project, both technically and when it is operational," he said. First he must battle the Nepalese bureaucracy to get a license to import the equipment from Israel. Then he has to airlift the equipment to an airstrip at Lukla and have it carried to the base camp on Yaks, which takes about a week. Golden jubileeGyalzen hopes his cafe will be ready by this spring, when more than 100 mountaineers are expected to attempt to scale the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Everest summit, celebrating the golden jubilee of the first conquest. "I am not there to make a profit from the project. All the revenue will go to Sagarmath Pollution Control Committee to keep the Everest region clean," he said. The pollution control committee educates local Sherpas on the advantages of keeping the mountain clear of garbage and pollution. The committee also forces trekkers and mountaineers to take their trash away with them and has imposed a ban on glass bottles on Everest. Since Everest was conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953, more than 1,200 people have climbed the mountain and nearly 200 died on its unpredictable slopes. Gyalzen, like most Sherpas, lives in the Everest region. His family owns a hotel at Namche village, at the 3,440-meter (11,280-foot) altitude. Sherpas were mostly yak herders and traders living high in the Himalayas until Nepal opened its borders to tourism in 1950. Their stamina and knowledge of the mountains makes them expert guides and porters for foreign mountaineers. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The Internet cafe I am planning will be in a temporary shed built with stone walls and covered with a tent
