Wait! It's not April First yet. But get ready anyway for the most daring hoax of 2006: an 85-year-old British woman and her dog will climb Chomolungma alpine style this spring with her Daschund.

Here's more: the route is a straight line from base camp up the west shoulder and directly up the west ridge which has never been hitherto climbed.

Mary Woodbridge and her dog, Daisy, are in training now in their backyard doing stretches and going for walks in the village of Greenfield in England. They say they will climb without bottled oxygen without Sherpas, and without camps.

"I'm sure we can make it to the top of Mount Everest. We both go for a walk every day and keep ourselves very fit," Mary said this week just before setting out for Nepal.

The expedition has no sponsors, mainly because it didn't get any. The expedition website (www.mary-woodbridge.co.uk/) has videos and photos of the rigorous training that Mary and Daisy's training and details on her plans. Mary's website is now filling up with well wishers and also nattering sceptics like this one:
"Mary - your dog will die. His little lungs will give up. You will also die. Soon."