Local team departs for Everest challenge

A team of 20 local residents has set off on a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to trek to Everest Base Camp. 

The Westbury & Warminster to Everest 2 expedition will last just under three weeks and is being led by Major Rab Lundie, an army officer based in Warminster. The team includes people of different ages and physical abilities who have spent months preparing for the challenge.

The group will arrive in Kathmandu for kit checks and cultural experiences before heading into the mountains to climb to Everest Base Camp (5,364m/17,598ft) and Kala Pattar (5,555m/18,225ft).

“Training has been a real success,” said team member Kay, who has owned a business in Westbury for over 20 years. “We have met up regularly since last summer to have training walks together as a team.

“The most challenging part of the expedition will be the altitude. All the physical training we can manage up to now still won’t prepare us for what it feels to breathe and exert ourselves at 5000m where the available oxygen is only about 55% of that at sea level. Aerobic capacity will be severely reduced, and strenuous effort much more taxing. We have carefully factored in acclimatisation days where we still trek to gain height but sleep back down at the same altitude again and this will help us adapt.”

Warminster-based member Nick Tilt joined the challenge after seeing it advertised in the Warminster Journal last year. He said, “I remember back in about 1977, Chris Bonington came down to the Athenaeum in Warminster and gave a talk about his new book Everest, The Hard Way.

“I went along as a 16-year-old in 6th form, and I was just enthralled at the expedition that he headed up and organised. It’s a book my father bought me then, and I carried around the world with me. It’s always been there and then I suddenly realised I had the opportunity to walk to base camp, and it just ignited something that had remained dormant in me for almost 50 years.

“I’m most excited for to actually go to Nepal. It’s quite a unique part of the world and I don’t actually think I’ve been anywhere like that before in geographical terms. And obviously, as the expedition develops, getting your feet onto the foot of Everest, because it’s one of the few things when you’re a kid, that they always tell you it’s the largest mountain and the seed is sown in you how awe inspiring it must be. So, to actually get onto the mountain itself and experience that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with a group of people that are all up for it will be amazing.”

The expedition follows Rab’s successful 2017 trek, when 22 of 29 participants reached Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar.

While on the mountain, Rab plans to complete the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon. From Kala Pattar he will return to Everest Base Camp for two days of further acclimatisation before taking part in the race, the highest marathon in the world.

The marathon takes place on 29th May, the anniversary of the first summit of Everest by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. Only 20 UK participants and a total of 250 runners worldwide secure a place each year.

After the marathon, Rab will rejoin the team and lead the group back to Lukla to conclude the expedition.

The trip is self-funded, but the team is raising money for The Nestling Trust, a Wiltshire-based charity providing neonatal and maternal healthcare in remote areas of Nepal.

To donate to the team’s fundraiser, visit https://thenestlingtrust.enthuse.com/pf/westbury-to-everest-2v4