Fiennes career peaks on Everest summit

This time last week I was sitting at Everest Base Camp watching the sun go down -- from nearly the highest point in the world. I was at the Tibetan Base Camp, a far cry from the Nepali base camp on the other side of the mountain, where Sir Ranulph Fiennes was scaling the world's highest peak.

Tibet Base Camp was barren save for three sets of tents, not a soul around except for a sprinkling of Chinese military guards. It couldn't be more different to the Nepal Base Camp where there are dozens of wannbe summiteers, queuing for their ascent.

Now our local hero here in the South West of UK, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, has scaled the peak. Two previous attempts ended in failure. He is the first man to cross both the polar ice-caps and climb 8,850 metres (29,035ft).

Sir Ranulph said from the top he was pleased but "felt dreadful". "This is the closest you can get to the moon by walking." Last week I had ridden a battered old Royal Enfield to 6,000 metres and felt the painful effects of altitude sickness. Ascend too fast and you can die from altitude sickness. You can't underestimate Sir Ranulph's achievement.

The air is thin, feels like you're holdnig your breath running up the stairs. I had headaches, my co-rider couldn't breathe, our mechanic vomited. I don't think many people appreciate just how tough surviving in this unhospitable place really is.

The following is lifted from the BBC... the Nepal route Sir Ranulph took:

Route plan

The route up is like this: first, climbers have to negotiate the crevasses and ice walls of the Khumbu icefall.

Next day, there is a steep climb up the face of the neighbouring peak of Lhotse. Spiked steel crampons are essential on the sometimes rock-hard ice.

They stay the night at Camp 3 about halfway up the face before tackling the rockier sections of the Yellow Band and then the Geneva Spur.

This leads to Everest's southern shoulder, the South Col, and Camp 4 at just under 8,000 metres. This is the launching point for the summit almost a kilometre above.

Climbers are now in the "Death Zone", so-named because there's so little oxygen in the air that nothing - plant or animal - can live up there for long.

Using bottled oxygen helps, but does not cancel out the effects of being that high.

The body is literally starting to break down, using up its stores. So it is a race against time.

On the summit, there is less than a third of the amount of oxygen available as at sea level.

Typically, climbers start out for the summit late at night, aiming to be on top the following morning with enough time to get all the way back to the South Col in daylight.

For this reason, team leaders impose turnaround times. If their climbers are not close enough to the summit by that time - often about 1pm - they have to descend.

It does not always work out like that. So near, people keep on going but then don't have the energy to get down again.

Experienced mountaineers will often say that Everest is not technically difficult to climb by the South Col route, compared with other Himalayan peaks.

But at this altitude, battling with hypoxia or oxygen starvation, each step is a decision.

The thin air plays with your mind. Many die here because they are not able to think straight.

Sometimes the only landmark ahead is the corpse of a dead climber.

There is one last obstacle before the top - a rocky outcrop called the Hillary Step, named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

After that, the summit is about 30 or 40 minutes away, up an undulating snow slope. But "it's the longest walk in the world," says guide Kenton Cool. "Even when you finally see the summit flags ahead, that walk seems never-ending."

Then it is all the way down again, many climbers sleeping a night at the South Col before returning to base camp next day.

EVEREST FACTS AND FIGURES

Height: 8,848 - 8,850m (29,029 - 29,035 feet)
First ascent: 29 May, 1953, Edmund Hillary/Tenzing Norgay
Number of ascents up to 1988: less than 200
Number of ascents up to end of 2008 climbing season: 4,109 by 2,700 individuals
Most people on the summit in a single day: 116, on 22 May, 2003
Oldest summiteer: 76-year-old Nepalese man, Min Bahadur Sherchan
On their final summit push, they usually bypass Camp 1 and go straight to Camp 2 or Advanced Base Camp at about 6,400m, bypassing Camp 1.

Source: BBC, May 2009