Honestly, you’d think the top of Everest would be one place you could go secure in the knowledge it’d be free from people chattering on their mobile phones. But, alas, even all the way up there you can use a smartphone, as British adventurer Daniel Hughes proved on Sunday when he became the first person to make a smartphone video call from the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
Using an HTC One device to make the call to the BBC, Hughes described it as a special moment because “as you can see, this is the world’s highest, live video call, never been done before from the rooftop of the world.”
Hughes made the video call (below) as a way of drawing attention to his Everest climb which he’s hoping will help him raise £1 million ($1.5 million) for Comic Relief, a high-profile UK-based charity that raises money for projects to help the poor and disadvantaged, with its ultimate aim to create a world free from poverty.
“I’m feeling very nostalgic here,” he told the BBC in an earlier interview on Friday as he neared the summit. “I’m camped in a place where Hillary and Tenzing, George Lowe and the British explorers were some 60 years ago. And here I am…..following in their footsteps.
“Unfortunately they couldn’t take a video camera to the summit of Everest, that was because their camera was too heavy. And here I am on an HTC smartphone using a satellite modem speaking to you live from Camp 3,” Hughes said.
Fortunately for Hughes, the skies were blue when he reached the summit on Sunday, allowing him to use his phone to offer some shots of the scenery during the call, which lasted just short of three minutes.
[Image: Everest Million]
