Death on Mount Everest is an old, oft-repeated tragedy, but the telling of this disaster had a modern twist: the story broke not in newspapers or on TV but in the swift new medium known as the Internet. The first word reached the outside world via a phone call to the Issaquah, Washington, home of journalist Jeff Herr at 7 a.m. on Saturday, May 11. Calling from Mount Everest, a climber told Herr, managing editor of Outside magazine's World Wide Web site, that a devastating storm had hit the mountain; among the missing was Scott Fischer, whose expedition Outside had been following since March. "Within two hours we had our first story up on the site," says Herr. News of the disaster appeared soon after on NBC's Everest Assault '96 site.

By midday Saturday, the Internet was buzzing over the real-time updates that trickled in from the climbers and rescuers via satellite phone and fax. Outside Online saw its traffic quadruple a day after the blizzard. NBC's site had more than 1 million visits on Monday alone. Full coverage of the mishap did not appear in the New York Times until Tuesday. "This is the first major international story that broke live on the Web," says Marty Yudkovitz, president of NBC Interactive Media. "It tells of the added dimensions the Internet can bring to journalism."

In fact, it was the second time in less than a year that news of a tragedy in the Himalayas broke on the Internet. When renowned British climber Alison Hargreaves died on K2 last August, Fischer was also on the mountain. He phoned in the news to Outside Online. But at the time, the major media outlets were doubtful of the Internet's reliability. "It was two or three days later that the news organizations picked it up," says Herr. This time, the Reuters wire service latched onto the story and ran an item on Saturday, and the Associated Press quoted Internet postings in its initial reports. But by Monday, says Todd Harris, a senior producer at NBC Interactive, "there was a news vacuum that was building, and only the online community had all the details."

The Websites also proved invaluable to relatives and friends. Outside Online established a chat area--editors called it the grieving room--where people could share information. Fischer's sister and cousins logged on several times each day. So did Kit Weathers, brother of Seaborn Beck Weathers, who had been reported dead. When Kit got a call saying his brother was actually alive, he spread the word online: "Perhaps others who haven't heard about their loved ones can take heart from this message."

There is a risk that news flashing over the Internet, unfiltered and unconfirmed, may be wrong. That possibility concerned Nova, the U.S. science TV program, which was tracking an expedition led by filmmaker David Breashears on its Everest Quest site. Producer Liesl Clark received various reports of casualties from the mountain. After much debate, she and her colleagues decided to hold the information--some of which proved to be inaccurate--until all family members had been notified.

But at least the editors of cyberspace got information quickly and could begin to check it out. Outside Online received a macabre reminder of just how much slower traditional communications can be. Five days after the disaster, several postcards arrived in the mail--sent by Fischer and Rob Hall just before they began their fatal assault on Mount Everest. --By Julie K.L. Dam. Reported by Jenifer Mattos/New York