It can be a nuisance typing in mittens, not least when you’re at 8,000m, on the side of Mt Everest, and the wind is biting at a brisk minus 25 degrees.

Kevin Shaw, a technical expert who also happens to climb mountains, has a solution: take a Bic pen and remove the ink stem, file down the lid with a knife until it is sharp, and strap this ‘pointer’ to your wrist so that it can manoeuvred over the keyboard.

The method – “which protects your fingers coming off; not something you want to risk over an e-mail” – is just one of many the 40-year-old mountaineer will be employing when he joins the most technologically equipped team ever to attempt Everest this weekend.

Among the other tips for using gadgetry in sub-zero conditions are never breathing on a touch-screen – “the steam’ll freeze, and then it will be like you’re touching the screen everywhere”; and, where possible, keeping equipment under your armpit – “the cold seems to run the battery down much faster.”

When the Altitude Everest expedition leaves on Sunday to retrace the trail of George Mallory, a British climber who disappeared on the mountain in 1924, it will be the first to stream video from the ascent.

Helping achieve this will be Mr Shaw’s ‘mobile broadcasting station’, which consists of the latest Thuraya satellite phone (£600) – “works just like a mobile”, an HP iPAQ pocket PC (£200), “it’s the only one to take every kind of memory card,” and a Sony DSC 650 digital camera (£120) – “it runs on AA batteries, which are the best for the cold.”

He will take a supply of exactly 54 AA batteries, 12 at any one time sitting in a battery pack, charging whichever device needs power. “They’re Energizer lithiums, which last 6 times longer than alkaline ones,” Mr Thaw told TimesOnline from base camp on the north side of Everest.

Laptops are out of the question. “Any hard drive relies on a thin cushion of air which sits between the drive itself and the reader. At altitude, that cushion is diminished. It would be guaranteed to kill it. Just like a needle scratching a record.”

The pocket PC is better, because it uses flash memory, which has no moving parts.

Apart from the cold and steam freezing on touch-screens, communications tools work perfectly well at high altitudes. From his perch at 20,000 feet, Mr Thaw will check his Orange e-mail – “I’m using a little known address, so I don’t get much spam,” connect to the internet, even edit photos before sending them, using Pocket Artist, which is like a reduced version of Photoshop.

Several of the members will write blogs, and these, along with about 6 pictures and a minute’s worth of video will be sent daily via a 9,600Kb/s connection to the expedition’s production office in London, from where they will be uploaded onto YouTube, and the expedition's website, within hours.

At that speed, which is slightly slower than dial-up, Mr Thaw, who is from Saddleworth, near Manchester, estimates the transmission will take about 7 minutes.

“The technology has just stepped into an arena where we can stream video from the mountain. In fact you could even edit web pages on the mountain, but we’ll be letting our production guys do it.”

One of the greatest advances in remote communications has been the Thuraya network, which uses ‘geo-stationary’ satellites, rather than orbital ones.

“In the days of the Iridium network, you’d get this 3-4 minute window when the satellite was on the wrong side of the earth,” Mr Thaw said. “It wasn’t great for sending video.”

Top ten tips for communicating from the summit of Everest (according to Kevin Thaw, technical manager, Altitude Everest)

1. Keep your mobile under your armpit or in your pocket - the cold wears the battery down faster

2. Avoid hard drives in flavour of Flash memory - there's no problem with 'diminishing air cushions'

3. Don't breathe on touch-screens - the steam will freeze

4. Use a geo-stationary, rather than an orbital, satellite - the signal is interrupted less

5. Fashion a pointer so you don't have to take your gloves off when you type

6. Use POP, rather than web, e-mail - it's 'more seamless'

7. Use AA batteries, lithium rather than alkaline. They last longer

8. Create a new e-mail account, so you get less time-wasting spam

9. Get an iPAC pocket PC - they're the only ones that take all memory cards

10. Use an old-fashioned car cigarette lighter adapter to connect devices to a battery pack for charging

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