Tweet from the roof of the world

As always the pre-monsoon period coincides with the major flow of alpinists to Everest and the mountain, perhaps because it is the highest in the world, continues to be the source of record-breaking news, curiosities in all shapes and sizes. The latest comes directly from the summit: the first tweet from the highest point on the earth, sent the other day by British mountaineer Kenton Cool.

Cool accepted the "challenge" launched a year ago by the BBC which asked him if the global network of information also included Everest. So on 6 May, whilst enjoying his ninth Everest summit, Cool located a weak signal which enabled him to send an SMS to twitter. Then, just to be sure that his wife knew he wouldn't make it back in time for dinner, he got in touch with her by more "traditional" means: satellite telephone. Had he been Italian, he'd have told her wait before chucking the pasta into boiling water...