From a distance, Everest Base Camp looks like a handful of brightly coloured Quality Streets that have been thrown into an overwhelming pile of rubble at the bottom of a huge tumbling cacophony of exploded ice towers.

As each laboured step brings you closer, the ‘Quality Streets’ become hundreds of brightly coloured tents nestled amongst the moraine. The notorious Khumbu Icefall looms above and the clockwork boom of avalanches serve as a reminder that man is not supposed to live in this environment.

For eight weeks every year this tented city rises up on the creaking shifting Khumbu Glacier. Everest Base Camp is home to hundreds of climbers, all with the same dream – to stand on top of the world.

There’s only one way to reach Base Camp on the south, or Nepalese, side and that is to pack your backpack, hire a porter and walk. The longer you take the better as your body has more time to acclimatise to the altitude. Signs along the trail warn trekkers and climbers that ascending too fast can have serious consequences – many have to turn around and go home without making it.

Life at Base Camp quickly falls into a routine. Without fail the -10 degree nights turn into sun-drenched mornings and the ice on the inside of your tent melts and starts dripping unceremoniously on your face – and everything else inside your tent. Cue scramble to get dressed and move out to the mess tent to wait for breakfast. A rota of porridge, rice pudding and muesli and yoghurt will be on the menu, followed by eggs and toast.

Most people will have, by now, developed what is known as the Khumbu Cough. Caused by the dry air it’s a hacking, tickly persistent cough you can hear echoing around the whole of Base Camp.

Tents are pitched right on the glacier; forget your nice, flat, soft tent pitch – simply put – it’s rubble. The Sherpas arrive days before the teams and use axes to rake over the stones and make areas suitable for the tents to be pitched. Throughout the ten week expedition these foundations will have to be re-built as the glacier is constantly melting, moving and shifting.

The jagged peaks of the Himalayas rise up around Base Camp but you can’t actually see Everest – except for the Icefall that is. What you can see are the constant avalanches – there are a few hotspots where the voracious down pouring of snow and rock is as constant as a water feature in a suburban garden.

But nothing can detract from the jaw-dropping beauty of the Himalayas. From the moment you un-zip your tent and catch a glimpse of the imposing, glistening Icefall, to nightfall when the stars come out and you feel that you can see every single star that’s up in the sky – it’s quite simply stunning.

by Marie Curie Cancer Care