Cybercafe At Mt. Everest

Makarand writes "A Nepalese entrepreneur, Tsering Gyalzen, is making plans to set up a cybercafe at Mt Everest basecamp and open it by March. Proceeds from the venture will be used to support solid waste management in the area. VSAT digital satellite equipment installed a 2-hour trek-distance away from base camp will be used to send signals to the internet cafe using radio links."

Comments

In other news....

[ebbomega]

Three Starbucks have just recently set themselves up on the same corner....

cool

[Anonymous Coward]

thanks, but i'll pass hauling myself 20000 ft up on a mountain.. when i can get it right here in my warm, heated house :-)

Heh

[Isbiten]

Good business idea, specially when only 100 people climb every year. But Im sure they all pay good to send some emails when they get back to basecamp.

Re:Heh

[ishmaelflood]

No, there's about 20-40 a day get to the old base camp (Gorak Shep) during the walking season. BTDT

Re:Heh

[mlush]

Good business idea, specially when only 100 people climb every year. But Im sure they all pay good to send some emails when they get back to basecamp.

Perhaps only 100 climb, but how many visit? A very brief search got me 4 guided treks to Base Camp, it a tourist destination nowadays!

On top of that I think that the climbers will be more interested in downloading weather data (though the tourist will be sending their emails)

Re:Heh

[kubla2000]

On top of that I think that the climbers will be more interested in downloading weather data (though the tourist will be sending their emails)

Well, all expeditions are equipped with their own satellite network links these days. Check out the climbing section of mountainzone.com http://climb.mountainzone.com/ for example. Most expeditions now also have a dedicated blogger who writes for a newspaper and a website. All this data, including satellite phone calls home (and to the sponsors) are the norm now.

The cafe will, I imagine, be for the tourists for whom base camp is the destination. It won't play a part in expeditions or expeditions planning.

Re:Heh

[Totto]

But Im sure they all pay good to send some emails when they get back to basecamp.

I climbed the highest mountain in the Americas last year. There was e-mail access at Base Camp, 20 miles into the mountains, at 14400 feet. Solar-powered PC and satelite phone.

Outgoing e-mail cost $4 per 250 bytes of text. Incoming e-mail was available with prior agreement.

Consider that rate for a moment. I am certain you can expect even more spectacular rates here.

(I'd also make damn sure to keep the incoming address away from spam-lists, but that is another matter).

Re:Heh

[mosch]

It's not entirely a foolish idea. There's a bakery near the Everest Base Camp that's been in business for at least five or six years.

The 100 person per year figure you cited is approximately how many people successfully summit a year. There's a large number of people who go part way and give up, and significantly more than that who don't want to climb Everest at all, but are just trekking in Sagarmatha National Park.

Cisco news release is here

[forged]

Cisco Donates Equipment to Build the World's Highest Wireless Connection On Mount Everest

The announcement was made on January 23, and it's nice to see things moving along. Cisco's announcement has a lot more details than the article reported today.

Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

This must be the only environment my duron 1.3 won't crash of overheating at 36Ghz.

Super computing, here I come!

Hmmm

[BeeCee]

Hope he plans on building an oxygen bar along with it.

One of the obstacles...

[ATAMAH]

we'd have to overcome to get there is:

x-wing:/# mount everest
mount: can't find everest in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

Re:One of the obstacles...

[floydman]

its:

mount -t slippery -o username=freezing,password=ass EVEREST /peak

Dear Ma

[Salsaman]

help I'm faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllliiinnnnngggggggg. ..

Hmm?

[Anonymous Coward]

First Everest... next, the restaurant at the end of the Universe?

Is no place sacred?

[Anonymous Coward]

Must we bring our instant communication, our invasive culture, to *every* place in the world?

Re:Is no place sacred?

[macaddict]

Must we bring our instant communication, our invasive culture, to *every* place in the world?

Must we push our ideas of how a culture is supposed to behave on every community that's trying to benefit from technological advances?

This is a Sherpa building a cybercafe in a Sherpa community. What gives you the right to judge them?

Maybe you should notify the Sherpas that they live in a sacred place that must be preserved, because they seem to think they can do whatever they want with their homes and community.

Gonna

[Timesprout]

need a few new empticons for the new experiences

gasping for breath
just fallen on my ass
just fallen on my ice axe
altitude induced gushing nose bleeds
fscking sherpa just ran off with all the oxygen

Last Chance for Reason

[coloth]

This "CyberCafe" may offer thrill-seeking Westerners and Japanese their last opportunity to communicate with their right-thinking loved ones, and be talked out of another ridiculous ego trip.

I, for one, would sponsor an EverQuest account at this cafe to snag these folks in a more controlled environment. At least until they are incapacitated by repetitive-stress injuries.

Then they could be transported to a safer uber-thrill, like a ride on the Vomit Comet or, perhaps, a scintillating decade of psychotherapy.

That sucks....

[abc_los]

I guess they're going to put my network consulting firm on K2 out of business

What a *good* idea.

[kahei]

I am happy to hear there is now a cybercafe in the central himalayas. I certainly hope that soon there will be a mcdonalds at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, a Starbucks in the middle of St. Pauls' Cathedral, and a frozen yogurt bar on fucking Mars.

In fact, why not just tarmac over the entire planet all in one go? It's kinder than doing it bit by bit like this.

Re:What a *good* idea.

[macaddict]

I am happy to hear there is now a cybercafe in the central himalayas. I certainly hope that soon there will be a mcdonalds at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, a Starbucks in the middle of St. Pauls' Cathedral, and a frozen yogurt bar on fucking Mars. In fact, why not just tarmac over the entire planet all in one go? It's kinder than doing it bit by bit like this.

Oh, I see. To preserve the planet in ways that you like, people in the Himalayas can have no choice as to what businesses they open. Ignorant savages. Don't they know they're supposed to preserve their culture intact (preferably at a quaint, primitive level) so that Western tourists can leave behind their Starbucks and McDonalds and go to their backward little country to gawk at them and feel like they've "left civilization behind"? Next thing you know, they'll be using the internet access to provide news and education opportunities to their community. How are the tourists supposed to feel superior if the natives already know about things like the "magic box that paints your picture" and "carts that move by themselves"?

Why are First World civilizations allowed to advance technologically, but anyone else has to preserve their cultures at whatever level the anthropologists find most interesting to study. Why are the Japanese allowed to introduce new technology and gadgets into their culture (and evenutally everyone else's) every day, but a Sherpa wants to open a cybercafe in his community and he's accused of somehow ruining the planet?

Maybe what is best for the Himalayas should be decided by the people who actually live there?

Oh just great!

[AndroidCat]

Rather than getting email "business offers" from Nigerian cybercafes, I'll get them from Everest. I can see it now:

Dear Sir.
Your contact information was referred to me by one of my trusted contacts, whose name I am not at liberty to compromize. I would like to approach you with reguards to a profitable Business Proposal, reguarding the transfer of TEN MILLION ($10000000) U.S. Dollars into your Bank Account. For reasons I am sure you will appreciate, I ask that you keep this commucation confidential, and avoid it falling into the hands of any agents of the Royal Nepal Yak Mounted Police that may be operating in Your area.

My name is Tsering Gyaltsen Sherpa, and I am the grandson of Gyalzen Sherpa, the recently Deceased Serpa of Nepal. If you have been following the events in my country over the last few years, you will remember the big scandal that took place when Gyalzen was found dead in an alley, from an alledged overdose of Tylenol Flu. [snip]

I swear those Nigerian 419 scammers must use a page like this one to generate their scam letters.

An Idea

[DarwinDan]

Here's an idea...since only a handful of people go there and it's expensive to set up a VSAT, why not have someone from Corporate America sponsor the base camp? I could just see it now: Enron Camp...

Here you go

[SuperKendall]

<i>gasping for breath</i>
x
8-X
x

<i> just fallen on my ass</i>
:-B*

<i>just fallen on my ice axe
/
:-/(
\

<i>altitude induced gushing nose bleeds</i>
^^^ :<(=============

<i>fscking sherpa just ran off with all the oxygen</i>
8<( [O2O2O2]%-)

Very solid waste

[Zog The Undeniable]

Proceeds from the venture will be used to support solid waste management in the area.

Given the temperatures on Everest, I expect Sir Edmund Hillary's poo is still up there and perfectly intact. Perhaps they could use the "solid waste" to construct traditional cairns as a memorial to those mountaineers that died trying to reach the summit, but that no-one really liked?

NPR bit

[queequeg1]

NPR had a nice bit a few weeks ago interviewing the guy setting this up. NPR story