Breaking news from the slopes of Mount Everest

One of the more unusual fundraisers for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is this year’s boldest venture on Mount Everest – an attempt to climb a new route on the world’s highest mountain via the north-east face, a wall 12000 feet high, a mile wide, and completely virgin territory.

Climbers Cathy O’Dowd and Ian Woodall are already veterans of Everest, having reached the summit twice, once by the south col route, once by the north ridge. Now they are ready to try something new, and to take the public with them. Both work as professional speakers, and Cathy is also an author and photographer.

They will be sharing their adventure with email and pictures sent to the expedition’s two main media outlets, the Daily Telegraph website, www.telegraph.co.uk, and Ireland’s top women’s website, www.ivenus.com. In addition they will be supplying material to the intranet site of The Academy For Chief Executives. Through all their media they will be soliciting contributions for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Integrated Education Fund.

Cathy O’Dowd and Ian Woodall have always worked with children’s charities on their major expeditions. As a mix of South African and British nationalities, they are renewing an association with the South African Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, while starting up a new association with the UK based Integrated Education Fund. Why did they choose these two? Cathy O’Dowd explains.

All donations received will be shared between the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Integrated Education Fund.

This ability to share a story of high adventure day-by-day through a website is relatively new. When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay finally reached the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953, it took four days for the news to reach England, sent first by runner and then by cable.

Fifty years later, Everest still has an irresistible lure for climbers and public alike. It is more than just the world’s highest mountain. It has become a symbol of mankind’s ability to overcome even the hugest of obstacles.

But while the mountain is as high, and as cold, and as steep as it was 50 years ago, the way news travels has changed completely. Everest was climbed before the first satellite was shot into orbit. In the last year it has become possible to phone home from the summit of Everest using a satellite handset little bigger than a mobile phone. Add a laptop and email and pictures are possible too. But like all technology, the theory is a lot simpler than the reality.

For Cathy and Ian, the challenge of sharing the day-by-day reality of the adventure with the British and Irish public is just as important as reaching the summit. And through that sharing of their adventures, they hope to bring to people’s attention the good work of their two chosen charities.

One of the great technical challenges is the remote location of the east face of Everest. Where dozens of teams and several hundred climbers will be crammed cheek-by-jowl in the south and north base camps of Everest, the North-East Face Expedition will be the only people based in the giant bowl at the foot of the east face.

Just to reach the base camp, they must cross the Langma La, a 17550 foot pass that will remain closed by snow into early April. They will be travelling on foot for five days, with their equipment carried by yaks and porters. Neither vehicles nor helicopters can reach the east base camp.

For six weeks the four team members will live in complete isolation in the shadow of Everest’s biggest face. They must be completely self-sufficient in terms of food, equipment, manpower and medical contingencies.

Power for the satellite phone, the laptop and the digital cameras will come from a small kerosene generator, and a supply of spare batteries. All the electronic equipment will be working at the limits of its capacity in terms of cold.

In this fiftieth anniversary year of Everest’s first ascent, more than twenty-five teams are lining up to try and reach the top. All but two are climbing on one of two routes, the south col route by which Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first climbed the peak, or the north ridge route on which George Mallory and Sandy Irvine lost their lives in 1924. All these teams will be following each others trails, falling over each others tents, queuing up for their turn on the narrow summit ridges.

Only the North-East Face Expedition is climbing in the spirit of the 1953 British team, rather than simply in its footsteps. Of the 1270 climbers who have reached the summit of Everest to date, only 13 have got there via the east side. And no-one has attempted the giant north-east face.

The challenge the climbers face is huge. Their chances of success are far lower than those teams that climb on the well-established routes on Everest. However, in their attempt they are reliving the early pioneering spirit that brought Britons to the foot of Everest from the 1920s onwards, a few climbers deep in the wilderness, hoping for a chance to conquer the unknown.

And whether they succeed or fail, the story of what happens can be shared by all of the UK and Ireland through the technical wizardry of modern technology.

Expedition information can be accessed via www.telegraph.co.uk/Everest, www.ivenus.com or www.cathyodowd.com.