KATHMANDU: When Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay scaled Mount Everest 50 years ago, they were rewarded with a view nobody else had ever seen.

On Thursday, however, thousands of couch potatoes were able to enjoy the same sublime experience after three climbers from China staged the world’s first live television broadcast from the summit.

Despite strong winds, the three scaled the 8,850-metre (29,035ft) mountain on Thursday, narrowly ahead of a US cable TV station that had hoped to become the first to broadcast live from the peak later.

Zhaxi Ciren, Awang Luobo, and Nima Ciren had slogged to the top of what is known in China as Mount Qomolangma from Tibet, via the northern slope. Shortly afterwards, China’s state-run Central Television interrupted its lunchtime bulletin to show live footage of the jubilant but exhausted climbers resting at the summit.

“The wind is strong, extremely strong. We are standing here, expressing our best wishes to the Chinese people,” one team member said.

The high-altitude stunt is likely to dismay Everest purists, enraged at the trivialization and commercialization of the world’s highest mountain. These days, the only qualification needed to ascend Everest is pounds sterling 40,000 — the climbing fee levied by China and Nepal.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.