Tweet

— ABOUT  Wasabi Stories… —

“Nothing Can Be Achieved Without Troubles”

Today’s story-teller is Japanese alpinist Gota Miura, 40 years old.

It is about the advancement in IT.

Miura benefits from the use of the computer and internet just like us. He uses internet to search things and the IT enables him to put out the information even during his climbing.

Miura says, “My climbing party has been using internet for our trips. In addition to sending our diaries and pictures in our expedition to Mt. Everest, we could report my father’s condition of arrhythmia to the team of doctors through internet. It must have been a rare case of remote medical care.”

It sounds like IT brought about only positive effects. However, it also brought suffering into him.

It is very difficult to operate a computer and other communication devices in a place where the temperature is -20 degrees. You have to take off your gloves before operating them. And you have to keep yourself warm in the first place. Otherwise, you will not be able to even touch the devices. You will be shocked to learn how cold the devices are under such condition…

Also it is hard to find a service area. Once he had to hold the device for over 10 minutes without moving his arms in a poor service area.

“In 1953, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed the summit of Mt. Everest the first time in history, the English journalist who covered the news ran through the night in a freezing cold weather to get to a village where he could get through the radio from the second camp. Then he transmitted an encrypted message to London. They received it 4 days later, on the night before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ.”

Finally, Miura concludes that he is not sure if it is a wonderful thing if the cell phone’s reception starts to reach to the summit of Mt. Everest. Because he would not be happy to receive a call from his office when he is having the greatest moment of his life. ^_^

The NIKKEI 12/5/2009 by Gota Miura (alpinist)

You should follow me on Twitter.