Everyone was nervous about today. This was it, the day we either reached, or failed to reach, Base Camp. And it was going to be a long day with 10 hours of walking. The plan was to walk to Base Camp and then return to Gorak Shep. There’s not a hotel at Base Camp! And it was mildly snowing which added to the drama.

Although there was only one path someone had helpfully provided a notice pointing the way.

We were now walking on top of the glacier, picking our way through the mounds of ice and rock.

And after about 6 hours we arrived. Base Camp! All 13 of us. That was the best thing – we had all made it. It is a godforsaken place with nothing much to recommend it. This was the trekkers’ base camp and we could just make out the climbers’ base camp about 200m away. But that was all we could see, the weather had closed in.

So, I got out my Union Jack which I had smuggled up here along with our Mars bars. You need a flag on the summit don’t you? Doritt (German) was not best pleased at being in this photo, but most of us were from Blighty so it seemed appropriate. And nobody else had brought a flag – so it was their fault. After this photo I put it away so more nationality-agnostic photos could be taken.

Four hours later we were back at Gorak Shep, fairly exhausted and ready for an early night.