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| Grania Willis, shown in this climb of Cho Oyu, is using Extended Systems' OneBridge technology to send e-mail and photos from Mt. Everest. |
Grania Willis, equestrian correspondent at the Irish Times, has sent e-mail messages and digital images capturing the moment when she arrived at the summit of the world’s highest mountain. In her successful bid to become the first Irish woman to climb the north side of the mountain, Grania has been using a PDA device enabled with Extended Systems’ OneBridge Mobile Groupware solution to send Irish Times readers regular updates of her ascent of Mt. Everest, one of the most extreme and hostile locations ever to be linked by electronic communications.
Grania launched her challenge to become the first Irish woman to climb Everest via the mountain’s technically demanding north side in aid of two organisations in the front line against cancer, The Friends of St. Luke’s Hospital and the Irish Hospice Foundation, in March. The expedition is sponsored by HP Ireland and Sord Data Systems, Ex
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| Grania Willis reached the summit of Mt. Everest on June 5, 2005. |
tended Systems’ Irish reseller partner, which provided the necessary technology equipment to allow her to send the articles and images published in the Irish Times twice weekly during the expedition.
Grania commented: “Throughout, Extended Systems’ mobile solution has been very easy to use and amazingly helpful in sharing my diary and pictures with the outside world, allowing me to send pictures proving that I finally reached the summit on Sunday, June 5th. The whole Sord team has been extremely helpful in assisting me throughout the expedition and helping me to learn how to use the different technologies comfortably.”
 | Among other training and preparation for her climb, Grania Willis learned to use the mobile devices and software so she could send e-mails and photos electronically. This photo shows Grania, along with Brendan O'Brien from Sord Data Systems and Tom McCabe from HP Ireland, testing the equipment in a freezer unit. |
|  | Two lamas (Tibetan monks) came up from the Rongbuk monastery to perform the puja, the blessing ceremony that is performed before all Himalayan expeditions. |
|  | Grania cooking in her tent at base camp. |
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