![Climber Documents Ascent to Mount Everest's Peak via Social Media [PICS]](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/archives/06RyLnLx6GtrhDkV6PdAhT3/hero-image.fill.size_1248x702.v1647018634.jpg)
Saikaly, who set out on his expedition in March, expects to reach the peak of Everest this month -- and for the intrepid explorer, the climb is more about the journey than reaching the apex.
You see, the whole adventure is part of a project that the filmmaker -- along with his organization, Finding Life -- launched with Wigup.tv, a new interactive web channel for kids ("Wigup" stands for "While I Grow Up), and the Canadian Ministry of Education.
Currently, 130 schools are following his journey, chatting with the explorer three times per week via Skype, and following along with his exploits via Twitter, Facebook, a tool called Epic Tracker that uses geolocation to show exactly where the climbers are at any given moment, and the webisodes that he shoots and editing while scaling Everest.
Furthermore, Saikaly is trying to get kids to take action off-line: Every school will raise $1,000 for Child Haven International, which will then construct an orphanage in India.
According to the climber, he's been to Everest twice before. "What got me here originally was that I was documenting the climb of my friend Dr. Sean Egan who was 63 years old -- he wanted to be the oldest Canadian to summit Mount Everest," he says. "Tragically, Sean never made it. He died. And so a year later, I came back and completed this film we had started together and I decided to climb Everest in his honor to make this film to make sure that his legacy carried on."
"Originally, I was doing short films and commercials and music videos, and then I just went on this trip with Dr. Egan and it completely changed my life," he explains. "So I guess the purpose of doing what we're doing with all these school kids in Canada --there's over 25,000 that are following us -- is essentially to give them what I found here, which was a lot of purpose in my life."
And, according to Saikaly, the kids are loving the integration of social media into their curriculum. "I hate to say it, but I was a bit of a naysayer when it came to social media about a year and a half ago," he admits. "And then when I started to partner with Wigup.tv, I started to see how positive it could be."
Saikaly has been kind enough to send us loads of amazing pictures from his journey. We've embedded them below.
