A 19-member Chinese mountaineering team, dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos, took the Olympic flame to the top of Mount Everest Thursday. The team broke camp at 27,390 feet before dawn and reached the summit of the 8,850-metre mountain a little more than six hours later.
The team was comprised of both ethnic Han Chinese and Tibetan members. The team captain and the final torchbearer were both Tibetans.
Team captain Nyima Cering yelled the slogan of the Beijing 2008 Games “One World, One Dream” as the torch was lit.
The team used torches designed by rocket scientists to take the flame along the final icy incline leading to the peak of Mount Everest. reports the Associated Press.
The official Xinhua News Agency reports that fuelled by propane, the flame burned brightly in the frigid, windy, oxygen-thin Himalayan air thanks to technology that keeps rocket motors burning in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
The flame was carried most of the way in a special metal canister and as it neared the summit the team used a wand to pass the flame to the torch.
The Everest flame is separate from the main Olympic torch, which was on the opposite side of China Thursday, in the southeastern province of Guangdong. The main torch was not taken up the mountain because of a delay due to bad weather which would have thrown the schedule off for the whole relay, reports the Associated Press.
