Torch's Everest climb shrouded in secrecy

BEIJING — Hoisting the Olympic torch up Mount Everest could happen any day, but it remains shrouded by high security, even higher altitude and little information.

Chinese climbers are waiting for good weather before carrying the torch up the world's highest mountain for the most ambitious leg of the five-continent torch relay before the Games Aug. 8-24 in Beijing.

"It's snowing heavily here. I can't even see Mount Qomolangma," the Chinese name for Everest, said Shao Shiwei, spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizers.

"The climb has already started, as the team are doing preparatory work, such as repairing paths between the camps and moving materials. But we are all waiting for the China Mountaineering Association to say when the final ascent will begin," Shao said.

Whenever the weather breaks, the torch relay — which reached mainland China on Sunday — will pause while the climbers take a separate flame specially designed to burn in the frigid, oxygen-thin air to the 29,035-foot summit.

Nine foreign journalists, from an original group of 11 approved by the Chinese government to cover the event, remain camped at a media center near Rongbuk Monastery at 16,732 feet, the world's highest monastery.

They've been waiting for more than a week in an information whiteout that reflects China's concern about possible protests that have dogged the relay in such cities as London, Paris and San Francisco. The state China Central Television plans to broadcast the event live.

Despite the command center on the mountain and two years of preparations, Chinese officials "are not telling us the weather forecast or anything else that is going on," said Nick Mulvenney, a reporter for Reuters news service. "The officials think that information is power. If nobody knows when the torch is going to summit, then (people) can't protest or sabotage it."

China calls 85,000-mile torch relay a "Journey of Harmony," designed to showcase China's growing world role. Anti-China riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 14 punctured that plan and galvanized protests to interrupt the 20-city global tour over China's human rights record, its harsh rule in Tibet and friendly ties with Sudan.

After the torch reached Sanya, in China's far south, on Sunday, it will be carried by more than 19,000 torchbearers for 97 days before reaching Beijing.