A young Tibetan woman has carried the Olympic torch to the top of the world. Panting in the thin air at the top of Mount Everest, Tsering Wangmo was the last of five mountaineers battling high winds and freezing temperatures in a slow-moving mini-relay on the summit of the world’s highest peak — a trek that ended with jubilant shouts of “Beijing welcomes you!”.

The team of 19 climbers broke camp at 27,390ft (8,300m) before dawn to begin the laborious final leg. They left in the dark to take advantage of the calmer morning winds and firmer footholds on the packed ice before the heat of the sun caused it to shift. Six hours later they reached the top of the 29,035ft mountain in an achievement that was broadcast live on Chinese state television.

Just shy of the summit the team paused and took the Olympic flame out of a backpack. An ethnic Tibetan climber lit the first torch, which was carried by Ji Ji, a 39-year-old Tibetan woman. The propane-fuelled torch — designed by Chinese scientists to withstand winds of up to 65km/h, nearly 6cm of rain an hour and temperatures of minus 40C — was handed to four other mountaineers before reaching the peak. The second in the relay, the veteran Chinese mountaineer Wang Yongfeng, 46, appeared to have difficulty inching forward against the wind and handed the torch to a Tibetan colleague.

It fell to Tsering Wangmo, 21, an ethnic Tibetan mountaineering student and the youngest in the team, to hold the torch aloft at the summit at 9.16am. She stood solemn and silent, but the other climbers — who first scaled Everest as a team in 2006 — shouted “Long live Tibet!” and “Long live Beijing!” into a television camera after unfurling the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag bearing the logo of the Beijing Olympics.

Some called out in English “One World, One Dream” — the slogan of the Games, which start on August 8. Others cried “Tashi delek”, a Tibetan greeting meaning “May everything be well”. A string of colourful Tibetan prayer flags stretching to the summit fluttered across the snow.

A day earlier an 11-man team of mountaineers cleared a path for the relay, setting up a rope to the summit to ease the task for the climbers.

The event was the most ambitious part of what has become the longest and most controversial Olympic torch relay in history.

Since the torch was ignited in Olympia, Greece, on March 24, its journey around the world has been dogged by protests over the Chinese rule of Tibet, its human rights record and support of Sudan’s pariah Government. The Everest plan became particularly controversial after China cracked down on violent unrest in Tibet that began in March with demonstrations against Chinese rule.

China surrounded the flame’s ascent with security to ensure no disruption of the torch journey. Climbing expeditions from the Tibetan and Nepalese sides of Everest were suspended for several weeks during the climbing season to prevent disturbances.

Li Zhixin, the team leader, said that even on a mountain cleared of all other climbers the torch carriers only just managed to avoid foes. He said: “Right up to now, there are still people trying to interfere with us. We were not afraid. We overcame these interferences.”

The Everest flame is separate from the main Olympic torch, which was in the southeastern province of Guangdong, the heart of Chinese manufacturing, yesterday. That relay leg in the boom town of Shenzhen was postponed until the afternoon to allow for the Everest ascent.

The main torch was not taken up Everest because of weather concerns. A delay because of bad weather would have thrown the schedule off for the whole torch relay.

The main flame will cross every region and province of China, including a planned relay through Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, on about June 20. It will return to Beijing on August 6.

The Everest leg has been held mainly amid secrecy, in part to deter protesters who have criticised the event as symbolising China’s domination over Tibet. China persuaded Nepal, a long-time recipient of Chinese aid, to keep climbers off its side of Everest for the first half of May to prevent surprise protests. Nepal reopened the mountain to climbers within hours of the torch reaching the summit.