China8217;s Everest torch run shrouded in secrecy

There was no word on location of the torch and which mountaineers on 31-member climbing team would go to the summit.

Chinese mountaineers made final preparations to take the Olympic torch up Mount Everest in a grand but contentious feat for the Beijing Olympics that is being accorded an unusual mixture of fanfare and secrecy.

State-run China Central Television on Wednesday began the first of what are billed as elaborate and technically difficult live broadcasts from Everest8217;s base camp for the torch8217;s journey up the world8217;s tallest peak. Mountaineers were completing the setup of a staging point at 8,300 meters 27,390 feet for the final assault on the 8,850-meter 29,035-foot summit, CCTV reported.

Yet there was no word on the location of the torch, which mountaineers on the 31-member climbing team would go to the summit, their whereabouts and when they would scale the peak. The Web site of Beijing Daily likened the lack of information to a 8220;mysterious veil that has surrounded base camp.8221;

Some media reports had speculated that the climb could come as early as Wednesday 8211; the 100-day countdown to the August 8-24 games 8211; or Thursday 8211; the May Day holiday. A brewing storm made a climb in the next three days unlikely, the Xinhua News Agency cited Yang Xingguo, the expedition8217;s weather expert at base camp, as saying late Wednesday.

Still billed as a spectacular event in the buildup to the August games, the Everest climb is being given mixed treatment. With the torch relay dogged by protests worldwide and Beijing8217;s oft-criticized rule in Tibet drawing heated scrutiny after widespread anti-Chinese protests this spring, organizers have placed a premium on security.

The Everest torch, specially designed to burn in frigid, windy, oxygen-thin Himalayan air, is a sister flame to the one that made its way around the world and Wednesday reached Hong Kong, returning to Chinese territory after a month abroad. Organizers did not publicize the Everest flame8217;s travel to base camp over the past month, apparently to avoid protests.

Beijing has also exercised its diplomatic clout, persuading neighboring Nepal to bar climbers from border-straddling Everest8217;s southern face to keep potential protesters from reaching the peak and spoiling the torch8217;s moment.

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But the secrecy has also dented plans by organizers and CCTV, which spent heavily on special broadcast facilities, to promote a torch run that is physically challenging but that has been criticized by Tibetan activists as a symbol of Chinese domination of Tibet.

State media and Olympic officials have gushed that the Everest climb would symbolize universal Olympic ideals and have largely omitted talk about Chinese dominance. A local newspaper in Hubei province last week said the ascent would 8220;create a peak for Olympic history and give expression to the acme of the Olympic spirit.8221;