QOMOLANGMA -- Chinese mountaineers on a mission to carry the Olympic flame over the top of Mount Qomolangma will start their last spurt to the peak on Thursday, announced a senior official at the base camp.
A time exposure shows a star leaving a trail over the summit of the world's highest mountain Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, at sunrise in the Tibet Autonomous Region May 7, 2008. |
"The headquarters made this decision on the basis of the weather conditions and the team's physical conditions," said Shao Shiwei, deputy director of the communications department of the the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG) said late on Wednesday.
Shao also announced the 19-member squad who will take on the final assault, with 7 of them in the backup group.
"All the camps and the route have been finished, the climbers will choose proper timing to ascend the mountain and carry the Olympic flame over it," added Shao.
Zhang Zhijian, spokesman for the Chinese Mountaineering Team, re-confirmed on Wednesday that the Beijing Olympic flame will be taken to the top of Mount Qomolangma by the traditional climb route along the north slope.
It came six days after Sun Bin, chief of the Olympic Torch Relay Center Qomolangma Operations Team, made the same confirmation.
The Beijing Olympics torch relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned, traveling 137,000 kilometers across five continents in 130 days. One of the highlights in its global journey is the ascent of the flame over the world's highest mountain which spans Nepal and southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The traditional and classic route used by most of the climbers starts from the Base Camp with an altitude of 5,200 meters above sea level, then heads for the Advance Base Camp, known as ABC, at 6,500 meters. It then winds upwards the summit with help of three more camps respectively at 7,028, 7,790 and 8,300 meters before scaling the top of Mt. Qomolangma.
