Adventurer and long-time friend of KMi Lorenzo Gariano this week set off on his second attempt to summit Everest and at the same time has flown into new unrest into Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. A seven-party alliance of Maoist rebels has called for a four-day nation-wide shutdown beginning this Thursday and a rally in Kathmandu on Saturday. It will be the latest in a series of protests over King Gyanendra's seizure of executive powers in February 2005. Members of Lorenzo's team suffered injuries in an attack on their convoy during last year's expedition: a grenade was thrown into one of their vehicles and one climber lost a significant part of his foot and had to return to Moscow for surgery.
Lorenzo has taken more technology with him this time: a PDA combined with a serial cable and some specialised software (normally used by photojournalists) will enable him to send back still images together with his GPS fixes and audio recordings.
Related Links:
