Byron is an experienced climber from Vulcan, Alberta. He's been to Everest once before in 1998 as a climber on a British expedition. This time he's leading a Canadian team on a quest for the top in Everest 2000: the Ultimate Challenge.

Byron is the expedition leader for Everest 2000. His Canadian team included climbers Brad Wrobleski and Tim Rippel plus communications support at Basecamp. Brad decided to leave the expedition April 10, 2000.

Byron began planning Everest 2000 nearly two years ago, after climbing to Everest's South Summit on a British commericial expedition. He was the only Canadian on the team.

On that 1998 trip, a shortage of rope kept Byron 80 m (270 ft) or 45 minutes from reaching his goal, the summit of Mt. Everest.

Any attempt to climb Everest begins with Sherpas. The Sherpa people are natives of Tibet who migrated to Nepal in the 16th and 17th centuries and have been living at high altitudes (above 3,050 m or 10,000 ft) for hundreds of years. Because of their adaptation to altitude, they're better able to function on the giant mountain than the many lowlanders who visit Everest each year.

In 1998 however, the Sherpas involved in fixing the route on the upper part of the mountain had miscalculated the amount of rope the climbers would need to safely traverse (cross) the knife-edge ridge from the South Summit over to the notorious Hillary Step.

About 80 m (270 ft) from the summit, with 45 minutes of climbing time left to meet their goal, Byron and the rest of the team had to turn back. No one in the nine expeditions on the mountain, summited that day.

Byron had made it to Everest's South Summit, at 8,765 m (28,758 ft), but without rope he decided it was unsafe to go on. He still had to make it across the knife-edge ridge and over the Hillary Step (18 m or 60 ft-high pitch of steep rock and snow) before the final stretch to the summit.

"One mis-step," Byron said, "and it was a 8,000 foot drop into Tibet on the right side, or a 6,000 foot drop into Nepal on the left." After thinking about his wife and son waiting at home, Byron said he just wouldn't risk the free climb, without the safety of the rope. He then vowed to return to complete his goal.

Everest 2000 is the realization of that promise and this time he isn't taking any chances. As expedition leader, Byron says he's in charge of logistics, redundancies and lots of rope.

The first-recognized summit of Mt. Everest was in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal. Since then, climbers have tried to reach the top a little differently, to make their climb unique. In 1975, Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to reach the summit. In 1980, Reinhold Messner of Italy made the first solo ascent. Two years earlier, Messner, along with Austria's Peter Habeler made the first ascent without bottled oxygen.

For Everest 2000, Byron is taking on the extra challenge of bringing five million school children along on the climb. The students, from schools across Canada and elsewhere, will join him on a virtual climb of Everest, by reading and viewing daily dispatches from the climber via this website.

Science Foundation Alberta has created the educational material and class lesson plans for students in Kindergarten to Grade 12, to enhance the virtual field trip.

The site is being hosted by CBC Newsworld which will also provide daily television coverage of the climb, to allow all Canadians to follow Byron's progress.