Mark Synnott belaying Alex Lowe leading on the upper wall of Great Trango Tower in the Karakoram Mountains of northern Pakistan. Photo by Jared Ogden/Quokka.com >	< The Trango field team and climbers transmitting dispatches on the walk in up the Baltoro Glacier to base camp. Photo by Alex Lowe/Quokka.com	Quokka Sports Immersion turns Internet spectators into virtual participants. Launched in 1996, its mission is to use digital technology to “change the way people experience sport.” Quokka (named after a small Australian marsupial) hooks digital cameras to mountain climbers, racing car drivers, and athletes. “The point of view is closer to the athlete’s own experience,” says Producer Jonathan Chester. During a climb on an 8,000-foot mountain wall in Pakistan, a “wired athlete” sent photos from the sheer wall and sent them by radio modem to a base camp, which relayed them to Quokka’s Web site in near-real-time.
Alex Lowe caught in a rare horizontal moment in a portaledge at camp 2 on the first ascent of the mile-high northwest face of Great Trango Tower. Photo by Jared Ogden/Quokka.com >