The lost trees of Khumbu

The BBC is retracing the footsteps of the 1953 British Everest expedition as they made their way up to base camp in preparation for the first successful assault on the mountain's summit. BBC correspondent Jane Hughes is keeping a diary of her journey.

Day Seven: Rest day in Dingboche

It is easy to see why so many people come here

Today the clouds have lifted and the mountains can be seen in all their intimidating splendour.

The air here is so clear every contour is sharply visible. The scenery is now virtually monochrome, the peaks black and white against the blue of the sky.

As you lower your eyes the landscape becomes a wash of browns and greys. The only vegetation is scrubby juniper bushes dotting the hillside.

It's all significantly different from the landscape seen by the 1953 Everest expedition as they passed through Dingboche.

Mingmalamusherpa, the owner of our guesthouse, remembers how it used to look. "The juniper used to be really big here," she says. "The forest was really thick.

"The culprits are the people from the lowlands coming up here to set up tea houses and plundering the forests to light their fires."

This is the downside of the Everest legacy. The 1953 expedition made people around the world aware of the wonders of this region. Thousands of tourists now flood through the area every year and though that brings wealth, it's also taking its toll.

You don't have to look far to see why. A place as remote as Dingboche is dotted with teahouses and guesthouses and outside almost every one is a pile of wood.

Mingmalamusherpa cooks on her wood stove

The nights here are icy cold, so to attract visitors, guesthouses stoke up the fires in their living rooms and ensure that hot showers are on offer.

There is some solar and hydroelectric power but up here most of the heat comes from burning trees.

Nepal is well aware of the risks of allowing its natural beauty to erode.

We passed nurseries where young trees are being nurtured and plantations where new growth is replacing the trees that have been lost.

But at this height and in this cold, trees grow at a tenth of the rate they do lower down the mountain and there simply aren't the resources to keep up with the depletion.

The area has been stripped of its trees

The local people are being taught that the environment is their greatest resource and they are being encouraged to preserve it, and many of the organised treks that pass through here now claim to be environmentally aware.

At the moment, the Khumbu region is still breathtakingly remote despite the impact of tourism, but no one knows how long it is going to be able to stay that way.