When veteran expedition leader Eric Simonson first started mountain guiding in 1973, webcasting was something spiders might do. News of climbing success or failure reached the outside world at roughly the speed of yak. Knocking off a big peak might be lauded in an obscure climbing journal, but as far as mainstream audiences were concerned, who cared? These days, however, Simonson sends e-mail from the Rongbuk Glacier in the shadow of Everest's north face and talks as eagerly about dual ISDN lines and transmission rates as he does about rope and backpacks. "Ten years ago we were in the...
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