8/2012 Climbing up Mt. Everest without ever going there

Want to take a look at Mt. Everest ? Do not have the courage, strength or money, to take up a trekking tour of Himalayas ? A bunch of Italian scientists have found a novel way to help you. They have set up a web cam at a vantage point on Kala Pathar, at an altitude of 5,675 metres (18,619 ft), from where you get a panorama of the big hills. The webcam captures video footage of the summit of Mount Everest[1] and is the highest webcam in the world. It was installed by Italian scientists as part of the Everest Share 2011 research project by the Nepalese Ev-K2-CNR team, which is intended to gather information regarding climate change by working together with the Everest weather station. The camera is an M12-type model made by the German-based company Mobotix. It is powered by solar cells and operates from 6am to 6pm local time[1] (UTC +5:45). It is capable of operating at temperatures as low as −30 °C (−22 °F) and broadcasts its live high definition video worldwide via the Internet. It is expected to work in conjunction with the Everest weather station – located at an altitude of 8,000 m (26,250 ft) on Mount Everest – to provide scientists with details regarding climate change. The captured video is transmitted wirelessly to the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Laboratory/Observatory, located on the slopes of Mount Everest at an altitude of 5,050 m (16,568 ft). The URL of the webcam is ::
http://www.evk2cnr.org/WebCams/PyramidOne/everest-webcam.html
partha