Chinese claim Olympic Torch on Everest summit

NEPAL Namche Bazaar (Everest region) - According to Chinese state media reports - not known for their accurate reporting - the special Olympic Torch has reached the summit of Mount Everest. Or has it? Chinese officials have kept the foreign correspondents invited to the Tibetan Everest Base Camp at arm's length from the climbing team. Making it very difficult to independently verify this information.

Many news reports have cited the "live" broadcast on CCTV. What few people know is that the same team made practice run in the spring of 2007, when the weather was a lot better.

Strange too, as reports said that a mere three days ago that the high camps and fixed ropes had been damaged by a heavy storm. How then did the team do such a quick repair job?

Climbers sojourning here in Namche Bazaar on the Nepali side of the mountain expected the Olympic Torch climbing team to summit on 9th May at the earliest and that was before the news about the snow storm came out.

It also seems very odd that the team made it from being stuck in Advanced Base Camp in just three days to the summit of the great mountain at 8848 metres without altitude problems.

Curiously, a still image released by the Chinese news agency Xinhua shows the team allegedly summiting with a clear blue sky to the south. From the north side of Mount Everest you can see the weather in Namche Bazaar, which was relatively clear this Thursday morning.

This does not square with the other images from the "summit" which show almost a whiteout.

So while many media organisations seem to believe it as it was on "live" TV, the real story of the Olympic Torch on Mount Everest is still, perhaps, not the one we have been reading today.