Summit Science
Measuring the world's biggest mountain

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Brad Washburn II
(video: Greg Prosl)
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Brad Washburn (Part II)
High Level Communications

What we're doing is being done with a pretty low level of mentality of the people who are doing it, and if you're really experienced you know that you're stupid. It's a very tricky business; if you're very high like this, you shouldn't make up your mind quickly about anything, don't react quickly. Say "now is this decision a wise one" a couple of times; say that to yourself before you make the decision.

Now, what we're trying to do on this trip is to have the agenda of the people on the mountain managed by somebody at base camp, so if they say we're on top, the fellow down below, in theory, might say to them "OK, now Joe, your next step, or your first step is this," and Joe will say, "OK, I know that, I've got it very much in my mind, and we're going to do that." Well, then when he does it, if it is to get the temperature, we want him to tell the fellow at base camp what the temperature is instead of recording it up there because that means a pencil, a pen, paper, and a pad that you've got in your hip pocket that you can't get out because of your parka and all that.

We think this, to my knowledge, has not been done before because we haven't had as wonderful communications as we hope we are going to have on this trip. This all comes out of MIT's media lab which is working with AT&T and others to see if we can put together a very, very high quality information exchange system right out of Boston.

Brad Washburn, Boston Museum of Science Geographer



SUMMIT SCIENCE