There’s something about Mount Everest (8,848 metres) that repeatedly attracts members of the military to its slopes. No strangers to a challenge and hardship, soldiers have been testing themselves on the world’s highest mountain for decades. Perhaps it’s the pull of an extreme environment, or perhaps it is the thrill of seemingly insurmountable odds that brings enlisted men and women to the Khumbu looking for adventure.

The Soldiering Tradition

George Mallory’s fateful 1924 expedition was lead by General Bruce; Sir Edmund Hillary was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force; and Bear Grylls trained with the UK Special Forces before his television career and his ascent of Mount Everest at the age of 23. But the army’s connection goes far deeper than the visits of Westerners to Mount Everest. Nepal’s soldiering tradition is almost part of the landscape. In villages across Annapurna and along the trails of the Everest Base Camp Trek, you can find monuments to – and celebrations of – the many Gurkha troops recruited to the British Army. Hardy young Nepalese men still train and compete for the immense privilege of serving abroad. The Ghurkhas have been serving with Indian and British forces since the early 1800s, but have made the news recently thanks to Joanna Lumley’s Gurkha Justice Campaign, when she fought for their right to retire in Britain after serving.

A Long Walk with One Leg

As well as being a place of adventure for many soldiers, the dramatic and beautiful path of the Everest Base Camp Trek can also be a path to recovery. Royal Marine, Nick Gibbons, was hurt during active duty in Afghanistan and lost part of his right leg. He was on patrol in Helmand in 2008 when he was hit by an explosion. It took five operations and some tough physiotherapy to get him back walking, and before long he had walked from Lukla airport to Everest Base Camp (5360 m) on his new prosthetic. In January this year, he was back training with a Commando unit in Norway.

It is brave souls like Nick that motivate people to raise money for charitable causes by following in his footsteps to Everest. One example is a Literature lecturer from Newport who will be walking the Everest Base Camp Trek this February to raise money for “Help for Heroes”, choosing this charity because of his connection with the Territorial Army.

Base Camp Border Police

There have been plenty more sightings of the army on Everest. In September 2009, members of the Indian army – the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) – made the news by announcing plans for a record-breaking, ecological Mount Everest expedition. Their aim was to simultaneously conduct a clean-up effort while attempting a world record ski run from the summit of Everest down to Everest Base Camp.

It was a daring plan, especially with the knowledge that many similar attempts to ski down Everest have resulted in failure and serious injury. The ITBP took on the expedition aiming to improve their “survival strategy” and “operational preparedness” as well as an environmental mission to clear some of the refuse that has been allowed to accumulate on the mountain.

Eight of the team planned to ski down from the summit, with the other twenty climbers hauling the rubbish they have collected from the top down to Everest Base Camp. Unfortunately, bad weather meant they had to abandon their ascent before they reached their objective. Sometimes even the precision of military planning cannot overcome the unpredictable and unforgiving nature of the weather around the world’s highest peak.

Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the Everest Base Camp Trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.

For many people, television and film images are their only window onto Mount Everest (8,848m). However, TV pictures rarely manage to capture and preserve for prosperity the unique majesty of the mountain. The striking impact of good photography – such an expressive art form – is the only medium that truly does justice to this iconic landscape and the dramas played out on it. In fact, the power of a single unforgettable image can only really be matched by seeing Everest with the naked eye.

From summit pictures to those taken along the course of the Everest Base Camp Trek, the best photographs are those that capture some of the scale and beauty of the Everest landscape and transport us to places seen only by an adventurous few.

Tensing on Top of the World

Everyone will remember the iconic image of Tensing Norgay, masked and hooded with one boot on the peak of Everest, with blue daylight merging from the horizon into the darkness of space above. Above his head he is holds his ice axe, which bears the national flags of the expedition team that waits expectantly at Everest Base Camp three thousand metres beneath him. You can also see the guide rope curled at his feet which ties him to his climbing partner, who is out of shot. This photograph, of course, was taken by Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953, just after they became the first mountaineers to reach the summit.

This is one of several striking images of Everest expeditions belonging to the Royal Geographic Society. Another powerful picture (that you can see for yourself on the National Geographic website) features Hillary and Norgay on the way up one of the steeper stages. They labour towards the camera which looks down the mountain, with the slopes twisting down behind them in giddy perspective towards the South Col and Lhotse Face below. As well as giving an impression of the steepness of the climb, this image conveys some of the effort involved in the long hard, trek from Everest Base Camp.

Reinhold Messner’s Tent

Reinhold Messner was the first recorded mountaineer to reach the summit alone and without the use of bottled oxygen. Imposing these limitations upon himself, it is no surprise that he described himself as “a single, narrow, gasping lung, floating over the mists.” This notion is depicted by one of his arresting photographs: his tent tied on a precarious outcrop of snow in the foreground with only an expanse of cloud behind, and no sign of a safe place to stand.

Part of the visual impact of these images comes from the innate difficulty in attaining them; but you don’t have to be a professional photographer – or even a mountaineer – to take a breathtaking shot of Mount Everest. Internet photo sharing sites like Flickr contain a bounty of amateur snaps taken along the Everest Base Camp Trek trails and at Base Camp itself. They show that anyone has the potential to catch the world’s mightiest mountain in a good light, emerging from the mist, or cutting an impressive silhouette from the sky.

If you like the idea of gathering your own photo diary of an unforgettable adventure, then you should investigate the classic Everest Base Camp Trek, with the chance to see Mount Everest with your own eyes, and take some memorable photographs.

Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the Everest Base Camp Trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.