Rising into Nepal's lunar landscape

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 Nine: Stark reminders en-route to Lobuje

High in the Himalayas the landscape is bleak

Everest is suddenly beginning to feel much closer. Though its intimidating slopes are hidden from view by other mountains at the moment, the changing terrain tells us that we're now high in the Himalayas.

We've passed above the point where people are able to live year-round. The only locals staying up here are running summer guesthouses for the trekkers and mountaineers who pass through.

At 4,950 metres, we're higher than Mont Blanc and the landscape feels brutal and almost lunar.

We spent the day scrambling through a rock-strewn and dusty glacial valley, parts of the river frozen solid.

Lost lives

What little scrub there was seemed to be struggling to sustain an existence.

At one point after an exhausting climb up the side of the valley we came to a large circular clearing in the dust, surrounded by piles of rock, many with weathered prayer flags fluttering from them.

Many have lost their lives on the slopes of Everest

This is the climbers' memorial ground, where those who've died on the slopes of Mount Everest are honoured.

Sherpas and foreigners alike have rock memorials here. Our chief Sherpa Tenzing (he's no relation to Tenzing Norgay), showed me the memorials for a friend and colleague, Babu Chiri Sherpa.

He was one of the strongest climbers ever to ascend Mount Everest. He made it to the summit an astonishing 10 times, once spending a record 21 hours up there without oxygen and once making it from based camp to the top in 16 hours 56 minutes, another record.

He died while on a photography expedition on the mountain. He was taking a picture when he slipped and fell down a crevasse.

Risky occupation

For Tenzing the memorial ground is a reminder not just of Babu Chiri Sherpa but of all his other fellow sherpas who have died on the mountain.

Many who have lost their lives do not have memorials here.

The Buddhist faith dictates that only those whose bodies have been recovered from the mountain may be commemorated here.

"An Everest expedition is a risky job," Tenzing says, with chilling understatement.

There are memorials to sherpas and foreign climbers

Around 175 people have lost their lives on the slopes of Mount Everest, more than 60 of those are sherpas. And yet the rewards for the strongest climbing sherpas are great and many here want to acquire the experience that will enable them to work high on the mountain.

By being one of the first two men on the summit Tenzing Norgay showed other sherpas what they might achieve and many are still seeking to follow his example.

Below base camp though, the path is straightforward and the risks far smaller, a relief to everyone on our team.

We're now just two days walk from the lowest slopes of Everest. And as the snow begins to fall we are all hunkering down in out tents, preparing for tomorrow's trek across our first glacier and onto Gorak Shep.