The Friday Matinee

If it's Friday then it must be time for the Friday Matinee - the ultimate time-killing measure, short of changing the office clocks, to help you while away the hours until the weekend.

This time we take a quick preview of the BBC2/Horizon feature on the 'Doctors in the Death Zone' - or we tried to, but we aren't allowed to embed their YouTube clip on the site:-(

You'll have to head to YouTube instead to watch the team's last few steps towards the summit of Everest. No upbeat music in this one - just the sounds of sheer, rasping effort - but the views are, well, not bad really:-)

And while we're looking at this year's Everest expeditions, here's another 2007 attempt on the big E, showing a crossing of the Khumbu ice fall. The terrain looks pretty messy but the video clip is anything but - it's decidedly swish in fact. Not only that, but it proves beyond all doubt the importance of high altitude step ladders.

Finally, why climb the icefall when you could paraglide across it? Here's how the mountain looks from the air - and how the faces of bemused locals look when they see a couple of mountaineers travelling around the Himalaya suspended from strips of bright red material. As for the faces of the yaks, we'll leave that to your imagination.

Enjoy the weekend!