(February 28 – 11:40 ET) – AGF Management Ltd. is funding an expedition to the top of the world.

Mountaineer Byron Smith and an all-Canadian team, presumably with Sherpa support, will attempt to summit the world’s highest peak. Vicarious adventurers will be able to follow the action from the couch with daily updates from the sacred mountain broadcast via CBC Newsworld using a video telephone with built-in camera fed through a satellite phone. This is the first time there is sufficient bandwidth to allow for live reports. The expedition can also be tracked online at www.newsworld.cbc.ca.

Smith, who owns a car dealership in Vulcan, Alberta, failed to reach the summit in his first attempt in 1998. This time he’s leading the trip which will approach Everest from the Southeast Ridge, the South Col route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. AGF says this expedition is only the second to be endorsed by The Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, a non-profit group that focuses on health, education and conservation in Nepal. Smith says, “I’m looking forward to taking Canadians along with me on this incredible trip. It’s exciting for me to know that people back home will be following my progress and helping me reach a dream.”
– IE Staff