China may pave road to Everest base camp

BEIJING -- China plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest to ease the Olympic torch's journey to the peak of the world's tallest mountain before the 2008 Beijing Games, state media reported Tuesday.

Construction of the road, budgeted at $19.7 million, would turn a 67-mile rough path from the foot of the mountain to a base camp at 17,060 feet "into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails," the Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua said construction, expected to start next week, would take about four months. The new highway would become a major route for tourists and mountaineers, it said.

An official from the Secretariat of the Tibetan government, who declined to give his name, confirmed the project was planned but refused to give details. Tibet and Nepal are the most commonly used routes up the mountain.

In April, organizers for the Beijing Summer Olympics announced plans for the longest torch relay in Olympic history, an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that would cross five continents and reach the 29,035-foot summit of Everest.

Taking the Olympic torch to the top of the mountain, seen by some as a way for Beijing to emphasize its claims to Tibet, is expected to be one of the relay's highlights.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951, and Beijing continues to rule the region.

Officials from the Beijing organizing committee did not return phone calls asking for comment.

Ed Viesturs of Bainbridge Island, Wash., one of the most accomplished U.S. climbers, said he thought a paved road, as opposed to the current dirt one, might make access to base camp easier for tour groups but he did not think it would affect climbers significantly.

"It's not going to matter to a climber whether it's paved or not," he said. "Big deal."

Viesturs, who has reached the Everest summit six times, noted that no matter how well-maintained the road is, climbers must ascend slowly to give them time to acclimate to the steadily dropping oxygen levels.

He added that climbers who prefer trekking to base camp already choose to approach the mountain from the Nepalese side, where there is no road.