Eating and drinking
Being at altitude speeds up the metabolism by 10 percent. On the mountain your body burns up to 6,000 calories a day and as you climb your appetite decreases. So at base camp you need to consume as many calories as you can – plenty of biscuits, sweets, chocolate and fatty foods!

The Sherpas prepare three meals a day. Breakfast comprises porridge, rice pudding or muesli and yoghurt, eggs and toast. Potatoes, spam and yak meat are mainstays for lunch and dinner. The Sherpas use a lot of garlic in their cooking and also eat it raw. Garlic is excellent for altitude adaptation as it thins the blood and it is also a natural antiseptic. And climbing Everest you will have more to worry about than having smelly breath!

Hot drinks and soups are energising and warming. It is also essential to drink lots of water to stave off the side-effects of being at altitude.

Sleeping at altitude
Sleeping at altitude is an acquired skill and a challenge in itself.

Everybody on the mountain sleeps in tents, pitched on the hard, rubbly ground. At night you hear the sound of constant avalanche and are also aware of the glacier cracking beneath you, sometimes so violent that you can feel your sleeping mat move!

Most nights it is -10 degrees Celsius inside the tent so everything freezes. In the morning, as soon as the sun hits the tent, the ice melts and drips on you and everything inside.

Due to the lower levels of oxygen, your heart beats faster and you breathe slower. It is common to wake in the night with a start, gasping for breath. The other altitude-induced ailments that can disturb sleep are the hacking, dry Khumbu cough and nose bleeds.

Toilets
There is a toilet tent for number twos only, which is pretty smelly! Inside there is a deep hole built up with stones – you need to balance carefully as you wouldn’t want to fall in.

In the hole is a big blue barrel which is taken away and emptied by the Sherpas. You are not allowed to wee in it because the Sherpas charge by the weight of the barrel and urine would increase the capacity and cost.

At night everybody wees in their own ‘pee bottle’ because it is far too cold to go outside.