I wanted to go to Everest. I couldn’t pass up the chance of being in the Himalayas without making a special effort, at least, to see the world’s most iconic mountain. In truth, it was more than that. For months before we departed for our trip I would fantasise about standing on the snow cone […]

The day after our North Col debacle, we began our retreat from Everest by walking down from Advanced Base Camp at 6,400 metres (21,000 feet) to Base Camp at 5,150 metres (17,000 feet). Our expedition leader, Jamie, was too busy dealing with Andrew, our ‘unassisted’ summitteer, to say goodbye to us at camp. It’s an […]

“It was warm last night, the temperature was up to minus 15C!” said our expedition leader, Jamie. The balmy temperature didn’t last as all the other nights married temperatures between minus 20C and minus 30C. Essentially, it is the equivalent of sleeping in your domestic freezer or something even colder. By the morning, ice crystals […]

After four days spent acclimatising at Base Camp, we move to Interim Camp and gain about 600 metres (nearly 2,000 feet) in altitude. The first sign that we are going to be on the move is the arrival of the Yaks. Our expedition leader, Jamie, has contracted with the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA), who control […]

Base Camp is something of an anticlimax when we arrive on the plateau. It’s a grey, barren, dusty, rock strewn, narrow plain that finishes where the moraine of the Rongbuk glacier begins. The wind is blowing hard, making me feel very cold despite wearing two shirts, a thick windstopper and a waterproof jacket. In areas […]

We are on our way from Lhasa to Everest Base Camp. In my glorious state of ignorance prior to undertaking this trip, I had not realised that there was more than one base camp on Everest. Why would anyone think otherwise? However, there is a base camp on the Nepali (South) side and a base […]

We jumped on a China Airlines plane to make the skip over the Himalayas into Lhasa, capital of the ‘autonomous’ region of Tibet. In reality it has been governed with a rod of iron by the Chinese since they ‘invaded’ it in 1959. Along the way, we got our first view of Everest across the […]