When you set out to tweak the leaders of Communist China, you want to consider worst-case scenarios.

"I had all the ideas about what a Chinese prison was like," Vancouver's Jeff Friesen said after what was supposed to be a Himalayan wedding turned into the most high-level protest in history: a demonstration on Mount Everest.

"I've done other direct action before; you think ahead," Friesen said.

After unfurling banners supporting Tibetan independence and putting the video on the Web, Friesen and his four companions were arrested by Chinese police, then expelled from the country Friday.

Members of a human-rights group, Students For a Free Tibet, the five activists were able to relax this weekend after all of them spent time in custody.

Friesen, who now lives in Thailand, said he never faced that worst-case scenario. He spent a day evading police in a story that had some elements of a spy movie. But things were rougher for his four companions: Kirsten Westby of Boulder, Colo.; Tenzin Dorjee of New York; and Shannon Service and Laurel Mac Sutherlin of San Francisco.

"They were treated very poorly that first day, while I was on the run," Friesen said by telephone from his hotel in Katmandu, Nepal.

In a press conference on Saturday in Katmandu, the other members of the group recounted their time in custody.

"The entire thing was fairly traumatic ? not sleeping for over 30 hours, being denied food and water for over 14, basically being psychologically terrorized," Service told an Associated Press reporter.

A female Chinese guard threatened her during the interrogation, Service said, saying: "If you don't tell the truth, you will sleep in this room and harm will come to you."

But things worked out well for the group, Friesen said, both in terms of his group's safe return as well as the publicity they generated.

Olympic torch route

Their protest was timed to coincide with the announcement of the Olympic torch route, as China prepares for the 2008 games in Beijing. Plans to take the torch to the top of the world's highest peak are seen as a way for China to solidify its claims to Tibet.

"Students for a Free Tibet really thought this out thoroughly, and the timing was just right," the 1991 graduate of Fort Vancouver High School said. "Everything came together."

There was a lot to organize: Just getting to the base camp of Mount Everest at the elevation of 17,600 feet is a major trek.

"I've done quite a bit of mountaineering," said the University of Washington graduate. "I've been climbing since I moved to Seattle.

For this trip, "We had to make false itineraries and plans. Three different teams arrived at base camp from different directions so that we wouldn't be noticed."

Friesen said he was in a wedding party, and "I was the best man," he said. Two members of the group were "supposed to be married at base camp and we were going to videotape it. That was our cover."

Instead, three members of the team unfurled banners, including one in English saying, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008."

Friesen's job at that point was "doing all the technical work for the team.

"We had a pretty complicated setup, with a live satellite feed of the event. While Shannon was filming, I was in a tent, making contact with Students for a Free Tibet, making sure the satellite feed was going out and keeping the gear warm," Friesen said. "It was cold!"

'About 30 police trucks'

Things got hot in a hurry when what Friesen recalled as "about 30 police trucks" showed up.

"Once they started arresting us, Shannon gave me high-resolution video tapes she had been shooting. The video stream we sent out was low resolution, and we wanted high resolution we could get out for the media.

"I took those tapes and the camera and ran right past a person apprehending Shannon," Friesen said. "They closed things down, and I hid while they searched."

And that's where Friesen completed another element of the group's plan.

"I handed the tapes off to another couple that had come up separately. Then I was running for a day. At 3 a.m., they knocked on my hotel door."

Even though police didn't find anything in his room, Friesen didn't feel he was in the clear.

"Not so much. I stalled as long as I could. I said I threw the tapes off the side of a road," he said. "We even went up to camp to look for them, giving that other couple time to get out of the country. It worked."

It was not Friesen's first time in custody. He and several companions were arrested after a protest in Colorado, where Friesen said his life took a turn.

"During grad school at the University of Colorado, I moved from physics to activist," he said.

In September 2001, Friesen and another man climbed a 245-foot construction crane in downtown Denver to unfurl a 40-by-70-foot sign that included the phrase "Wage Peace Now." A total of six people were arrested for trespassing; a jury found them not guilty.

Friesen was a staffer for Alternative Radio, a weekly radio show based in Boulder, from 2000 to 2003. (The show is carried in the Portland-Vancouver market on KOPB and KBOO.)

David Barsamian, executive director of Alternative Radio, said this week's protest reflected Friesen's concern about the lack of human rights in Tibet, and "is tied to the larger issue of Tibet's sovereignty."

And Friesen is a good person to have on the team for that sort of effort, Barsamian told The Columbian: "He's devoted, bright and very media-savvy."

And Friesen was savvy enough to recognize how the Chinese tried to boost their own media image after arresting his team.

"We were driven into a building that looked like a four-star hotel," he said. "There was a bouquet of flowers and a fruit plate, and all the Chinese cameramen there were yelling at us, 'Eat!' ? Trying to make it look good."