Group set for Everest dinner date

The group will sit down to a formal dinner of caviar and smoked duck

A group of 10 friends are hoping to break a world record by having a four-course dinner on Mount Everest.

The men, most of whom grew up together in Forest Row, East Sussex, are planning to take food, wine, tables and chairs to a height of 23,000 ft.

They will be wearing top hats and tails in temperatures of minus 40C to raise money for the British Lung Foundation.

The group hope to enter the Guinness Book of Records by breaking the world record for formal dining at altitude.

It's a very British record - one of those totally mad off-the-wall things Rob Sulley

The group leave for the world's highest peak on Saturday evening and say what had once been "a madcap idea in the future" has suddenly become reality.

But Solicitor Rob Sulley, 32, from Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, said it was all for a very good cause.

He said the idea came about after the leader of the group, Henry Shelford, recovered from a lung tissue disease, and decided he wanted to help others worse off than himself.

"Initially it was a great adventure, but when the nerves set in, you think we'll raise a lot of money for charity and we'll have a heck of a good laugh trying, so we'll see what happens," said Mr Sully.

The novice climbers have been undergoing intensive training

They have already raised £20,000 and are hoping to raise another £30,000.

"It's a very British record - one of those totally mad off the wall things," he said.

The climbers plan to hold their dinner party about four-fifths of the way up Mount Everest on Saturday, 1 May, and have even consulted Debretts for the correct etiquette.

Another member of the group, Rob Aitken, 30, from Forest Row, said the menu would consist of caviar, smoked duck, a chocolate pudding and a cheese board.

He said they would also be drinking a bottle of wine which had been specially altered to drink at altitude.

The team, who describe themselves as novice climbers, has been undergoing intensive gym training and high-calorie eating, as well as practising in Snowdonia, Scotland and the Alps.

The record is currently held by an Australian team who dined on Mount Huascarán in Peru in June 1989.