A new high point: Now there’s WhatsApp from the top of Everest for telephony

A state-run Chinese service provider claims to have scaled the highest peak of success, literally, by enabling 5G connectivity on the summit of Everest, allowing future climbers to use their mobiles to tell friends and family that they’re feeling on top of the world in more ways than one. Sino-sceptics, however, might wink at this as another example of the smoke, replicated by mirrors, which is the Chinese Dragon’s trademark, and cite in support of their contention the 1960s claim made by Beijing that a cadre of Red Guards overnight stormed up Everest, sans oxygen, but with the moral support of the chanted Thoughts of their Chairman, demonstrating that when men and mountains meet, the mantra is the Mao the merrier.

Ever since Mallory’s iconic “Because it is there” reply to the question as to why he wanted to climb it, Everest has irresistibly drawn record-breakers of diverse kinds. In 1970 a Japanese became the first person to ski down Everest from the South Col, in 2005 a French fighter pilot made the first – and so far only – helicopter landing on the summit, and in 2007 an Anglo-American group of rock singers staged a charity concert at the 5,5000 metre Base Camp.

All this hustle and bustle might make some muse whether the mountain, named after Surveyor General George Everest, should more appropriately be renamed Neverest.