Panasonic Toughbook travels to the 'Roof Of The World'

Like Rex, the Toughbook proved to be more than a match for its environment. Writing from 6,300 (20,669 feet) metres at Camp 2, he was very enthusiastic about having taken the Toughbook so far: "I have personally managed to lug my Toughbook up to Camp 2. I am sure that right now it is the highest computer in the world and it is functioning perfectly."

The Toughbook ultimately made it to Camp 3, and at 7150m (24,000 feet) certainly broke any previous records for the product's resilience, if not that of any notebook. As long as it was kept warm, it remained operable - an amazing feat with the environment outside the tent described as: "high wind, sub 30 degrees, almost always snowing, causing spindrift to fill every pocket or anything that is left open." While Rex heard reports of notebook failure from other Everest teams, the CF-18 kept going.

“It was the only one of all the computers that made it to base camp to operate flawlessly. The others would simply refuse to start because their hard drives were frozen or sometimes, when people were trying to operate them in the warmth of the midday sun they would start okay and then crash a minute or two later. The Toughbook warms up the hard drive first and it didn’t give me one moment of concern in the entire trip.

As it continued to operate well beyond its manufacturing specifications, the Toughbook was an important outlet for Rex to continue to communicate the highs and the lows to the rest of the world, and in the final stages, his excitement and disappointment as he and the team waited for the jet stream to move away from the summit so they could make the final ascent of Everest.

According to Rex Pemberton: "Going to the top of the world takes determination, training, perseverance and resilience. As an important part of my support team, the Toughbook played its part and delivered when it came to surviving the 'toughest test on earth.'"

You can track Rex's adventure at his web site.

Though just 21 years of age, Rex is nowhere near the youngest person to have reached the summit of the World's tallest mountain. "There was a 20 year old American female Jess Roskelley who summited a day or two before i did," says Rex. And a 21 year old Brit, Jake Meyer, became the youngest person from the UK to summit Everest a few days later. But the youngest person to reach the summit of Everest is actually a local female climber Ming Kipa Sherpa, who summited Everest in 2003 at age 15. A local also held the previous record which was 16 years and 17 days by Temba Tshiri in 2001.